A Modern Main Street where Women are Front & Center
When a woman who has left the workforce to care for children & family is ready to return, where does she go?
There’s a myriad of seemingly helpful resources available: Job search tips, resume tips, interview tips, “returnship” opportunities, bleak statistics, encouraging blog posts, and list after list of “good” jobs for stay-at-home moms.
But you know what’s conspicuously absent? A meaningful, broad discussion of why women who have been caregivers can be valuable additions to the market; or how to help the market see the skills & talent women have developed in their years outside the formal workplace.
When we talk about gender imbalance in the workforce, we’re accustomed to discussing the structural sexism that manifests itself in the very real problems of the wage gap, the lack of female representation in the c-suite, and workplace sexual harassment.
Those are real, and pressing, issues. But what we don’t talk about as often is the huge hurdle of getting women, especially those who have been full-time caregivers, into the workforce in the first place. Too few options exist for women after the intense years of parenting are over. Too often we expect them to be satisfied with either low pay or low prestige jobs even though their maturity suggests they are capable of more. Too many women simply don’t re-enter the workforce, even when they’d like to return.
And really, the problem encompasses more than just caregiving women. By UN estimates, 70% of women worldwide would like to have paid employment, but less than half actually do.
It was statistics and questions like these that prompted me, a mother of three and a graduate student at the University of Oxford’s business school to wonder about the possibility of a solution.
I looked around and asked, is there a business-driven way to harness the incredible skills of women who have been full-time caregivers or are otherwise left out of the formal marketplace? What if there was a digital marketplace where their talents — talents that often begin as unpaid work but develop into true expertise along the way — are made accessible to nearby community members? A place where families like mine, who are often strained by the pressures of two full-time jobs and not enough time, could seek the help of the incredible women just down the street — and in doing so assign economic value to work previously underrecognized?
Today we call that marketplace West Tenth: a modern, women-led main street where the skills necessary to keep a home and family in balance are highly valued.
West Tenth gives women an online space to own and operate a virtual storefront where they can share the skills they use every day with the people in their community. A place where talents that are currently taken for granted, such as baking, household budgeting, vacation planning, and so much more can be monetized. Where some may see a woman with just a cute photography hobby or a knack for organizing or decorating, West Tenth sees a potential entrepreneur.
West Tenth debuts later this summer in the Conejo Valley, outside of Los Angeles. Already, we’ve lined up a cohort that includes a baker of customized cookies, a sought-after personal makeup artist, a meticulous event planner, a passionate fitness instructor, and many more incredible entrepreneurs, all of whom own and operate businesses from their homes. The excitement we’ve seen in both our first group of women business owners and prospective customers tells us we’ve definitely tapped into something.
Ultimately, we know that West Tenth is only a small part of the solution to a big problem. Our global society has a long way to go to properly value the many incredible ways women contribute to their communities (paid & unpaid) and to the world at large. But we are proud to be part of a change in the right direction. At West Tenth, we fiercely believe in the potential of women, and we are thrilled to be highlighting and promoting the work of the millions of women who are right around the corner.
We invite you to
- Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram (@w10th)
- Check out our website, where you can sign up to be notified when West Tenth comes to your city
- Nominate a talented friend/relative in the LA area to join us as a storefront owner by e-mailing hello@wtenth.com
