The word “mumpreneur” has never sat well with me. Why is it that the role of a dad is not paired with their choice to run a business but is amplified in unity with a woman’s role as mom and entrepreneur?
Male entrepreneurs outnumber female entrepreneurs two to one, so unless most male entrepreneurs are childless, there should be many more dadpreneurs than mumpreneurs. Why do we put women’s children as their entrepreneurial nucleus when we don’t have the same expectations as fathers?
My view is that the word “mumpreneur” creates a hierarchy of entrepreneurial identities that reinforce the masculine norm and downplays a woman’s capabilities. It suggests that the title is required to highlight something that is otherwise constituted to be incompatible, motherhood and entrepreneurship.
I have taken strides to avoid this title, yet it is commonly bestowed upon myself and many of my peers. I wanted to explore why this word makes me cringe and why I think it should be banned from our vernacular in describing entrepreneurs who happen to be female and happen to be moms.
So much more than a “mumpreneur”
The term “mumpreneur” was coined in the late Nineties. The dictionary definition is “a woman who combines running a business enterprise with looking after her children”.
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Women are trying to achieve equal footing with men. One of our biggest handicaps in reaching this equity in the workplace is the motherhood penalty which is almost solely responsible for the pay gap between women and men.
The mumpreneur title assumes that there isn’t an equal distribution of the family load as, by the omission of the dadpreneur, we can assume that the load is bestowed on the mom. Although the removal of a title will not generate equality, the handicap it highlights is damaging.
I’m proud of building my business whilst birthing and co-parenting two small humans and I give credit to my firstborn for my business idea, as Retykle surely wouldn’t have sparked without him.
While I love my role as a mom and my business space celebrates and addresses motherhood and children, I don’t feel that I need a special tag, particularly one that may suggest either of my roles compromises the other or that what I am doing has a small mission or ambition based on my status as a mother.
Suppose there is anything I know about moms. In that case, upon having our children, we tap into a new depth of strength, resilience and empathy which should lend dimension to our abilities as entrepreneurs but let us demonstrate this through our track records rather than trying to weigh us down by advertising our additional crown.
The mumpreneur as a titled identity can also frame entrepreneurship in children in gendered ways. It seems as though society assumes that men have compartmentalised their lives, whereas women become moms as their primary identity once they have children. We seem to be amplifying the stereotypical entrepreneur as male by seeking to make the distinction.
If you asked fifty young people in the UK to name a female entrepreneurial role model, only one would be able to answer. This statistic, which was among the findings of a new study into young peoples’ ambition by Entrepreneur First, isn’t just disappointing, it’s damaging.
Young people are inspired to fulfil their potential by the successful people they see represented in the media. For young women who have ambitions of founding a company, this representation does not exist on the sort of scale it needs to. In contrast, young men with similar aspirations have obvious champions to look up to.
This is perhaps unsurprising, given that VCs invest 98 per cent of their capital in startups led by men. And yet, despite the challenges in securing investment, women-led tech startups still generate 12 per cent higher revenue than male-run companies.
Final thoughts
Improving representation for successful women in business is valuable and worthwhile because of the standard it sets for girls who aspire to become entrepreneurs and because the young women currently founding their startups are increasingly motivated not by money, but by the desire to create positive social impact.
Also Read: Why the real estate sector needs more female representation
The failure to make today’s female founders more visible in the media as the relatable, aspirational role models that they are risks letting down the next generation of young women who want to achieve their ambitions through entrepreneurship.
If we don’t, the world will continue to miss out on some of its best startup founders and the high-impact, socially-minded companies they have the potential to create.
Just as we are trying to introduce gender neutrality into hiring, compensation, and investing, shouldn’t we also endeavour to have our businesses measured by the measures that count – disrupting markets, creating opportunities, social and environmental impact and creating financial value.
The title mumpreneur entrenches gender biases that are still so prevalent in entrepreneurship. Hence, please attribute this title with a conscience just as we have learned to do with so many other damaging labels. Great things will happen if we create equal space in identity for all entrepreneurs to form the future.
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