By Nadya Zhexembayeva

We have a Media Library! Yeh! Well, it is only three pieces to start, but so many more in the queue – all the fabulous speeches, short documentaries on business doing unbelievable work, and digital audio stories for unusual business innovations!

The next thing to be posted is the key note address by Ray Anderson, the founder of Interface, Inc– the staple of sustainable enterprise development – and (I was there, too, with my 17 month old) – it was a good speech, the kind that makes your heart move and makes your mind expand. Must say thanks to Brandon Mead the designer and video editor, who has created the images and will edit all the thousands of media pieces to come. And Bryan for producing the site. Well, it feels almost like an award speech. I would like to thank the Academy…. Joking. Too excited! Ok, may be it’s just a party of one.

By Nadya Zhexembayeva 

Bryan Chaikin, the magician behind the BAWB website and technology, had set this blog space up quite a few weeks ago. Before his victorious e-mail, titled “Blog is UP!”, I had been bugging him non-stop to make it happen. But the moment I saw it up – all so sweet with our proud BAWBlog line and signature windmills (what else is there to represent the marriage of profits and world benefit?), I got into a freeze mode, scared to touch the keyboard. It is too serious. And big. And has to be polished. And perfect. Otherwise, who would read it?

Well, the reality is that nobody reads it anyway. Because nobody (or almost nobody) knows it exists. So I can say whatever I want.

So, what do I want to say?

The question got me in trouble, too; frozen for a few more days. There must be something really important I can say – especially in light of the many big and small stories circling the world – Israel and Palestine are again in flux, Russian fight with Ukraine over gas prices brings EU to a new wave of energy discussions (but fails to raise a substantive alternative fuel conversation), the price of coal is again measured in human lives in US But all of these stories, while echoing painfully in my heart, seem too distant, almost intangible.

And then – I found it. Or, to be more precise, IT found me. Well, nothing really important to say, but something really important to ask. Amidst our regular BAWB editorial meeting, as we reviewed and argued over stories submitted by World Inquiry participants, we bumped into one story we could not agree on. Is it good enough to be published? Is it really innovative?

Ladies Who Launch’ story, submitted by James Lincoln, is a story about a business start up aimed at supporting women-entrepreneurs with tools and resources needed to succeed. While the story definitely highlighted an innovative business idea (after all, women-entrepreneurs is the fastest growing group of business owners), we could not agree whether or not the social benefit element was strong enough to accept the story for the BAWB Innovation Bank. Is this a business venture benefits the world in the larger sense, or is it merely investing in business as one institute of society?

Of course, I was on the “Do not accept side” (and ‘of course’ is the function of my personal history of growing up in a feminist-prone USSR amidst the collapse of all systems, thus never experiencing a true sense of power and authority, or powerlessness, for that matter). I simply could not see how supporting fellow business-women brings a greater service to humanity.

So, the editorial meeting came to a dead end, and we decided to keep the story in our discussion cue for another round, so that more people can weigh in on it. Meanwhile, two huge events happened that kept bringing me back to the same questions of women, power, and world benefit. First, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was inaugurated as Liberia’s new head of state, becoming Africa’s first elected female president. Second, Michelle Bachelet was elected the first Chilean woman-president and is to be sworn in later this year. And as I celebrated and pondered this personally unexpected move towards female leadership at the international level, I kept asking myself why do I find it so wonderful to see women elected presidents, but do not think that the proliferation of woman-owned business is a big contribution to world benefit?

So, the polls are open – does a business innovation that promotes and supports women-entrepreneurs count as a business as an agent of world benefit? And more importantly, what is the role of women in business, and does it make sense to speak of women separately from men when it comes to the role of business in society?