I’m up to here with quotas for women and schemes and incentives .. enough!
The latest that has come onto my radar is a scheme and fund by Enterprise Ireland for “Ambitious Women”.
www.enterprise-ireland.com/ambitiouswomen – get your entry in because applications close on the 10th September!
I spotted the very talented and intelligent Fine Gael Senator Deirdre Clune, blogging about it on her website with the headline “New Fund means more Women will be at the Forefront of Irish Business“.
Now … before I go any further you are probably thinking that I have something against women.
I don’t!
I work with a team of women who are absolutely brilliant and during the course of my work I deal with incredible, intelligent, talented, professional and quite impressive women on an ongoing basis.
If you asked me to make a list of people who have impressed me lately, then truthfully more women would be on that list than men!
If you look around you and observe you can see some of these women rising to the top and starting to take the top positions in organisations. In political circles we are seeing exactly the same – Deirdre could very well be one of these in time.
The new Enterprise Ireland scheme (don’t get me wrong, any new scheme promoting entrepreneurship is great) is according to the blurb designed to “accelerate the number of high potential female-led businesses being set up in Ireland“
The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mr Richard Bruton stated “I’m delighted to add that this recent announcement follows on from two other successful female entrepreneurship funds which were launched last year.“
If you read on you get even more of it: “The funding call is open to female-led start-ups in Manufacturing and Internationally Traded Services including Internet, Games, Apps, Cloud Computing, Enterprise Software, Lifesciences, Food, Consumer Products, Medical Devices and e-Health – This means that women can pursue viable business ideas in a multitude of areas, which in turn could generate jobs and get the economy moving“
“I do hope in addition to helping women jump start their business ideas the fund will also advance Ireland’s reputation on the world stage as these business areas are all globally exciting and sustainable.”
So, a female start up will get assistance but a guy with the same proposition won’t? Hmmm..
Ambitious and talented women in Ireland ….do you really want to be singled out for such special attention?
Such schemes specifically promoting women in business are wrong and if you think about it discriminatory to men and totally missing the point.
We need to be encouraging everyone to start a business – come on!
If there was a similar scheme for men, women would be up in arms and rightfully so.
Ambitious women, wherever you are stand up and go for it
…not because there is a scheme or a quota but because you want it, you deserve it and you are more than able!
No Fund will mean more women are at the forefront of Irish business – you can do it for yourselves the same as the rest of us!
P.S. I’m waiting for the torrent of abuse when I publish this post – It won’t be pretty!!
Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion
Fuzion are a Marketing, PR and Graphic Design firm in Ireland with offices in Cork and Dublin
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