Women are often still struggling in some cases to be seen & heard when it comes to running businesses.

There is still a very much a male domination when it comes to positions such as CEO’s & Managing Directors & women are often still overlooked for promotion against their male counterparts. Salaries still show vast gender disparities, despite repeated attempts to change this seemingly never ending gender gap.

Women have traditionally been seen as the ‘fairer sex’ & as the ‘home maker’ & of course as ‘the mother’. Throughout history these ‘titles’ have been used to keep women down in the workplace, undermine their abilities & be used to justify the salary disparities with their peers.

Last year Virtually Smart Ltd wrote about how the classic film Nine to Five was just one example of how three stereotypes of women in the workplace were abused, overlooked & side-lined. Despite this being fiction, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin & Dolly Parton have all have been known to verbalise how familiar the experiences of their characters in the film were, to them from their own life experiences.

Despite there being a huge shift in the recognition of women in the workplace, as business owners & as business pioneers; there are still areas where women are overlooked, overseen & surpassed despite their skills, knowledge & educational capacity being greater than their male counterparts.

Therefore, what about the women who have taken this & made it their strength? Across the globe women in business & pioneers of industry have stood up to be counted time & again & have left an indelible mark in history.

Virtually Smart Ltd would like to celebrate some of these pioneers as recognition of their ability to stand up, to be counted & to use their determination to succeed in business.

Dame Anita Roddick

A committed human rights activist & environmental campaigner , Anita had been inspired by her travels & wanted to create a cosmetic brand which was made of natural products, did not test on animals & was fair trade. She subsequently founded ‘The Body Shop’ in 1976 with the first shop opening in Brighton. With a franchise opening in Brussels in 1978, by 1982 there were Body Shop’s opening across the UK at two per month. By the mid 1990’s, Anita Roddick was one of the fourth richest women in the UK. (1)

Long before ‘Climate Change’ or ‘Climate Crisis’ was an everyday slogan, Anita Roddick promised ‘that the ingredients had not been tested on animals, were not synthetic and – long before the Fairtrade movement – had been sourced directly from the world’s ground-level growers rather than commodity brokers. Her lack of packaging was anti-waste: customers should return the plain bottles to be refilled.’ (2)

Anita Roddick was awarded an OBE in 1988 & made a dame in 2003. Sadly Anita Roddick passed away at the young age of 64 following a stroke in 2007. The Body Shop, despite having been sold to L’Oreal for £625M, is still her legacy.

Thomasina Miers

Thomasina having won Masterchef in 2005, subsequently went on to open her first Wahaca in 2007 with business partner Mark Selby. Inspired by her travels & her research trips to Mexico, Wahaca was not only an opportunity for Thomasina to bring the authenticity of Mexican street food to her cuisine; but “From the word go we wanted to create a fun, innovative business that would be as sustainable as possible so we opened our doors recycling everything from our menus, cardboard, glass and food waste.” (3)

Since humble beginnings, Thomasina has gone on to write for Country Living Magazine, has published seven cook books, presented cookery programmes for Channel 4 * Channel 5 & now has twenty five Wahaca restaurants & Deli’s across the UK.

Deborah Meaden

Deborah Meaden is known for being one of the fierce Dragon’s in the BBC television programme Dragon’s Den.

Deborah having studied business at college, began her fist import company at aged nineteen. Following a other successful business start ups with an Italian clothing franchise & a bingo concession at Butlins; Deborah then worked her way up to Operations Director in the family amusement arcade business. With a shift to the Holiday Park side of the business to follow & being promoted to Managing Director; Deborah subsequently sold the family business for £33M in 2005, whilst retaining a 23% stake in the business. (4)

Deborah joined series three of Dragon’s Den & has since invested in an estimated 63 businesses with investments in the region of £3.3M.

Kirsty Henshaw

Since securing investment from Peter Jones & Duncan Bannatyne from Dragon’s Den in 2010, Kirsty Henshaw’s ‘Kirsty’s’ has developed into a successful £5M brand.

Kirsty started her healthy eating & allergy free foods business when she found out her son had an allergy to nuts, gluten & dairy. Rather than try & find off the shelf food which would be safe for him, Kirsty began to make his food from scratch.

Having created a delicious free-from ice cream, realising there was a market for such foods & following a very successful pitch on Dragon’s Den; Kirsty spent three years developing the dairy & nut free frozen desert’s business with Peter Jones & Duncan Bannatyne. (5)

The birth of the ‘Kirsty’s’ healthy eating ready meals, came from Kirsty’s realisation that pre packaged food despite being free-from, wasn’t necessarily healthy. The launch of children free from foods is in recognition of the need for allergy sensitive foods for children & adults alike & the range keeps growing & developing.

A busy business woman & juggling parenthood, Kirsty only took three weeks maternity leave following the birth of her daughter Sophie.

“People thought I was mad going back to work so quickly after Sophie but what they don’t always understand is when you’ve worked so hard to build a business you can’t just take time off,” (6)

“To me it’s important that both Jacob and Sophie grow up knowing that their mum has worked hard and has a job that is fuelled by passion. I want them both to find their passions in life and develop a strong work ethic – understanding that anything is possible, if you have passion – regardless of your situation.” (6)

‘Kirsty’s’ healthy ready meals are stocked in most of the large high street supermarkets, including Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, ASDA, Morrisons & Budgens.

These women have forged their businesses through determination & belief & have been successful in their own rights, knowing that their brands, products & business decisions have been challenging, but equally liberating. Taking control of your own business & your own destiny can be daunting. What these women have shown is that if you believe in something enough, the hard work will pay off.