Back in March, three Nigerian authors — Oyinkan Braithwaite, Akwaeke Emezi and Diana Evans — made the longlist for the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction.
The longlist has finally been narrowed down, and the final shortlist includes Oyinkan Braithwaitefor My Sister, the Serial Killer and Diana Evansfor Ordinary People, making them the fifth and sixth Africans to be finalists for the prestigious prize.
Diana Evans and Oyinkan Braithwaite (Photo: The New York Times)
The previous Africans on the shortlist include Nigeria’s Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in 2004, 2007 and 2014; the Sierra Leonean-Scottish novelist, Aminatta Forna in 2011; the Ghanaian-Canadian writer, Esi Edugyan in 2012; and Nigeria’s Ayobami Adebayo in 2017.
With Evans and Braithwaite making the shortlist, this is the first time ever that more than one African has been named a finalist for the prize. Winning the Women’s Prize for Fiction is an incredible honour — one that comes with high regard and a £30,000 cash reward.
The winners will be announced on June 5.
Ordinary People and My Sister, The Serial Killer (Photo: Brittle Paper)
This is part 2 of a 3-part series so if you haven’t read part 1, you really should so you can get the flow of the series. But we all know you are just going to go ahead and keep reading this anyway…*side-eye* Don’t worry – we know “ourselves”.
Parenting isn’t easy, we are still trying to figure out how to be adults and suddenly we are supposed to raising entire individuals – no pressure huhn?
Dealing with all of this can be a lot and it is my personal experience that a lot of younger parents and even older parents are frustrated half the time. We need to find smarter ways to deal with all the pressure that accompanies life and not pass on that pressure to our kids.
You really should read part 1 of this Here, don’t say I didn’t try.
When it comes to raising kids, everyone seems to think they know how you can do it and they are very quick to tell you, whether you ask for their opinion or not.
The problem here is that a lot of this ‘advice’ is mostly methods and very little principles. Methods don’t work on each kid in the same way or even at all – so how does all of this leave you?
Yeah, I know the feeling – the first thing I said you could do in #part1 was ‘Hold your center’. The second thing you should know is big brother is always watching but he’s not who you think he is…
Be very aware that Big Brother is ALWAYS watching
I’ve got 2 kids, one of them is 5 and the other is 2. Recently, I noticed my 5-year-old yelling at my 2-year old “come here, pick up your toys, get down from the table – NOW”, complete with this huge scowl as he peered down at his sister. He was being a big brother and correcting her but what was scary was how he was doing it. He was doing it just like me, word for word, action for action.
He was using the exact same words I used on or at him and in the exact same tone (I was mortified, o dear – when I asked for a mini me – I didn’t mean for him to copy wrong traits too).
Have you ever met a kid you thought was so polite only to meet their parent(s) and go – “oh, I see why” – because they are just as polite. It’s not a coincidence. Its ‘monkey see, monkey do’ especially when kids are so young.
Children rarely do as you say, they do as you do. Heck, even adults mimic behavior. Truth is whether your child is very young or much older, she is still learning by observing your behavior. It is the design of nature for humans to learn first by observing.
Your kids are watching you. They see how you treat others, how you speak, and in the most unlikely of times they will replay your behavior to you much to your amazement. Just in case you haven’t figured it out yet, children are the real big brother.
They will copy your eating habits, copy how you treat yourself; they will learn esteem from you. They will learn how to treat others by the way you treat them. This is why YELLING and SHOVING are just soooo unproductive. You teach them not to be violent and at the minutest slip-up, you whip out the back-hand or scream at the top of your voice. Yet you expect these creatures to magically take on a calm, non-violent demeanor. How?
You constantly ask your child to do better, to be better; isn’t it high time you start taking your own advice?
Knowing that big brother always watches shouldn’t make you paranoid or make you feel bad. No. Don’t get overwhelmed. No matter how long you have been a parent you are still learning – its ok. Do the best you can.
Model the behavior you want to see in your kids. Show them how to act and how to behave and when you slip up, show them how you recover.
How you choose to do that is up you, just remember you are showing them how to behave by the way you behave, especially to them.
Now that you are aware, what is that one thing you know you do a hell of a lot of but you really don’t want your kid to copy? You know what to do.
Look out for #part3, last but certainly not the least of the series. It might make you cry.
About Olachi Olatunji
Hey, my name is Olachi and I like to refer to myself as a ‘thinking enthusiast.’
I love a few things, number one of them being learning and number two would be spreading.
I believe in the power of right thinking to transform lives and as a result; I enjoy spreading knowledge, inspiring thinking and encouraging movement.
I however am not a very serious person so please don’t expect to find me in a suit… In a crowd with beating music though, find me somewhere in the middle – moving to the beat and filling my soul with joy.
Nigeria has a long way to go when it comes to women’s rights, as political, religious and cultural nuances continue to shape and can restrict the visibility, participation and leadership roles available to Nigerian women. However, we can start by implementing some of these recommendations and ensure that the women’s justice agenda is created and is a priority at the local, state and federal levels of government.
On April 28, 2019, Matt Obono, convener of the TAP Initiative, reported that 70 women were arrested and taken to the Utako police station in Abuja.
Their offence? Partying at a nightclub. But it did not stop there.
Obono reported allegations of sexual abuse and molestation. “The joint task force who arrested these girls also molested and sexually assaulted them,” he said.
In a bid to justify their illegal arrest and detention, the 70 women were accused of crimes they did not commit. These women were publicly shamed, humiliated and paraded by the Nigerian authorities before the media while the rest of the world watched. This is not the first time that the Nigerian government will impede on and violate the rights of Nigerian women.
Only two years ago, Dorothy Njemanze, Edu Ene Okoro, Justina Etim and Amarachi Jessyforth won a lawsuit against the Nigerian government, and were each awarded damages in the sum of six million naira (about $16,500) after they were abducted, unlawfully detained, and assaulted sexually, physically, and verbally at different times between Janaury 2011 and March 2013 in the hands of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and other government agencies, such as the police and the military.
They were arrested and accused of being prostitutes simply on the grounds that they were found on the streets at night.
Nigeria has a long way to go when it comes to women’s rights and attaining gender equality. In 2016, I penned the article, “A Year in Review: What It Means to be a Woman in Nigeria,” where I tried to enunciate the many issues facing women in our country. Since writing the article, not much has improved for women in Nigeria, in spite of the numerous organizations fighting tirelessly for gender equality and women’s rights. However, these women are pushing the envelope for good, and must be commended. Political nuances, religious and cultural beliefs continue to hinder on our progress.
To date, the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill is yet to be passed, and has been voted against repeatedly by Nigerian lawmakers, majority of whom are men. (Women in parliament constitute just 5.6 percent). To date, there remains a lack of visible female leadership in politics, policy and governance, and there continues to be an absence of women’s participation in crucial decision making circles from business to technology.
Here are examples:
Seeing these photos from an appreciation dinner for Lagos State’s incoming governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, one is only left wondering, where are the women?
These from the Foundation for Good Governance for Development in Nigeria also beg the same question. Not represented at the event are women leaders from President Muhammadu Buhari’s team.
In a conversation with Angela Merkel, the first female chancellor of Germany, President Buhari, in 2016, made it clear that women (referring to his wife Aisha Buhari)only belong to the kitchen and to the bedroom. To date, he is yet to apologize for his comments about women.
Chief Executive Officer of Alpha Reach and popular social media commentator, J.J. Omojuwa wrote, “Nigeria is desperate for women in politics and governance” as he posted a photograph of Nigeria’s all male leadership team.View image on Twitter
What can be done to improve the participation of women across all sectors? What can we do, as active citizens, to ensure progress in gender equality and women’s rights: Here are a few recommendations:
Pass the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill.
Fund and support women’s organizations and initiatives as women’s rights organizations help to strengthen the links between leaders and the women in the communities they represent.
Encourage and implement women’s participation in leadership roles at the local, state and federal levels of government.
Establish a sex offenders’ registry and database. Despite an overwhelming number of reported cases of sexual assaults, Nigeria has recorded only eighteen rape convictions in its legal history in a country of 190 million people.
Protect women and girls in Nigeria through new laws and policies; this will help Nigeria achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda on Women and Girls.
Indeed, Nigeria has a long way to go when it comes to women’s rights, as political, religious and cultural nuances continue to shape and can restrict the visibility, participation and leadership roles available to Nigerian women. However, we can start by implementing some of these recommendations and ensure that the women’s justice agenda is created and is a priority at the local, state and federal levels of government.
The women’s justice agenda will advance, implement and improve the reproductive, economic, political and social rights for all Nigerian women. The women’s justice agenda will ensure that the Nigerian government will be held accountable, and will remain at the forefront of this critical fight to protect women’s rights and ensure fairness for all women living in Nigeria.
There are those who live for the likes and comments. Constantly refreshing their feed to see if the numbers have gone up. How many views their videos have had in the last fifteen mins. Oh, the addiction has caused many anxiety attacks and depression. Having said all of this, the gift of social media is the connection with billions of people around the world, real time news, a place to share information and passion.
You attend a party, and rather than the revelers have a good time, you find them on their phones snapchatting, instagramming, tweeting, and updating their statuses. It sometimes replaces human interaction, and contributes to social divide. You find that some people are being discriminated against because of the kind of phone they use, or the quality of the pictures taken, or the lack of SnapChat filters thereof. Believe it or not, this actually happens.
Depending on how you use social media, it can be a curse or a blessing. Either way, technology has come to stay, and with it comes a wild world of innovative ideas that shape our daily lives. Social media enables real-time communication with family, friends, associates, and acquaintances, as well as enable us stay up to date with their lives and personal business. It can be lethargic, therapeutic or routine.
It can be used, abused or taken advantage of depending on the user’s intentions. Having said that, the power of social media is greater than any one individual, organization or country. For instance, go after Beyonce, troll her and see what happens to you. She has an entire community of what is called Beehives who will taunt and torment you with bee emojis, and you may be forced to temporarily suspend your account to be rid of them.
I prefer to see social media as somewhat of a revolution, where people can air their grievances, rise against tyrannical government policies, demand change, or simply rant. Some have cashed in big time with it, while some have gone down the dark road of destruction. There are those who use it for popularity, fame or notoriety, so many cases I don’t even know where to begin. From the actress who got naked on a live feed, or the transgender who boasts of a sugar daddy who funds his lavish lifestyle, to couples calling each out and going to war. Sadly, it is also used as a scamming tool, where fake accounts of famous people are created and used to ask unsuspecting fans for benefits or money. How about merchants who steal pictures from other people’s pages, post it on theirs, and when you pay for the items—poof! the page is gone, disappeared into oblivion.
Back in the day, you needed to log into Pornhub to see a nude picture, or slot in an x-rated DVD. Now tits and ass stare you dead in eye.
There are those who live for the likes and comments. Constantly refreshing their feed to see if the numbers have gone up. How many views their videos have had in the last fifteen mins. Oh, the addiction has caused many anxiety attacks and depression. Having said all of this, the gift of social media is the connection with billions of people around the world, real time news, a place to share information and passion.
It is a tool that is used by almost every single one of us. If used correctly, social media can aid crowdfunding,where supporters, users, friends or family can lend a hand. We’ve seen cases where ailing celebrities used their platforms to appeal for assistance, and with the help of reposts, entire medical bills running into millions were offset. Influencers grow brands or the brands grow the influencers. Buy and sell from the comfort of your home, advertise your products, and get exposure for your business at lower costs than any other means of traditional marketing. Educational institutes, teachers and professors can extend their classroom discussions and post assignments, quizzes and tests and assist students with homework.
As per 2017 statistics, a person spends an average of 135 minutes per day on social media, for some this is before sunrise. In conclusion, social media can give you fantastic returns if you use it positively and wisely. If you’re not taking advantage of social media, you’re missing out on a fast, inexpensive, and effective way to reach almost half the world’s population.
London-based Maryam Salam is breaking taboos about being a stylish Hijab wearer and has been helping inspire other women on Muslim beauty, fashion, and modesty with her fashion and lifestyle choices.
I’ve always worked on my faith journey with God and wearing hijab is something I’ve always wished for and prayed about. I believe dressing modestly is one of many steps to get stronger in my faith and closer to God.
The Nigerian blogger who transitioned to modest fashion including discussions around faith and being a hijabi in this millennial generation to her blog admits that adjusting her lifestyle and becoming more intentional about the way she dresses was not an easy one.
I lost my job then due to my choice to wear hijab in the workplace. However, this didn’t stop me, things got better. The more I embrace it, the better things get!
Two years later, Salam is now one of the biggest modest Nigerian fashion influencers and right after bagging a degree in Entrepreneurship & International Business last month, announced her new brainchild Arewa Scarveswhich doubles as a fashion accessory brand and also a fund-raising platform for the education of the girl child with a portion of every sale going to a charity organisation based in Nigeria.
Bella Naija caught up with Maryam and she talks about the inspiration behind Arewa Scarves, why it was important to create that brand and the impactful ways she hopes to change the way hijab-wearing women perceive themselves.
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BNS: Tell us about the new brand Maryam: Arewa Scarves is a social enterprise providing carefully selected and high-quality scarves to suit every skin tones while supporting Girl-child education in Nigeria by donating £1 from every sale to our charity partner Global Hope Integrated Empowerment (an NGO in Nigeria for women and children) executing these aims.
BNS:What is the inspiration behind Arewa Scarves? Maryam: The desire to make an impact in the community. In my mind, I had a plan to: finish my first degree, then second, then apply for jobs, get a small apartment then start saving to achieve my goals gradually but God had a better plan. After several years of being scared, planning and hesitating (sometimes), I launched a project very dear to my heart and finally, I can embark on this journey that isn’t just about me or for me. Arewa Scarves is more than a fashion brand but we hope it will become a movement/community where we can impact lives while still looking beautiful. It’s about coming together to support a cause: The girl-child and children in general for something we might see as little but impactful (£1 from every sale is donated to support Girl-child, implemented by our charity partners)
BNS: Why was there a need to create this brand now? Maryam: I am a hijabi and I struggle with finding high-quality scarves that suits me, that’s maybe because I am dark skinned. That’s why Arewa Scarves focus on pieces that enhance skin colour, especially for people of colour.
BNS: Who is your brand targeted at? Maryam: Our target audience is first young people that believe in our brand promise: “together, we can make a big impact“ and people of colour who love to explore the beauty of scarves. We believe Arewa Scarves is an experience. We want women to feel beautiful, empowered and confident when wearing our scarves.
BNS: What are some plans you have for the brand? Maryam: To be able to spread our support across different countries and charity organizations in Africa.
Sara Hinesley, a 10-year-old girl who was born without hands has just won the 2019 Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest.
She said she found writing in cursive to be easy and practiced it a lot. “She can do just about anything often times better than me or my husband,” said her mom, Cathryn Hinesley.
Besides writing, Sara likes to create art, ride her bike, read and swim.
The students were informed that sexual harassment is both a civil wrong and a criminal offense. The students were also reminded that rape and sexual assault by penetration carry life imprisonment, while sexual harassment is three years imprisonment.
In a bid to ensure continuous sensitization of students on sexual harassment and safety on campus, the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team recently engaged students of both the University of Lagos and Lagos State University. The sensitization was done during orientation program for fresh students who have recently been enrolled into the two higher institutions.
The team spoke on the topic “Prevention of Rape and Sexual Assault on Campus.”
The focus on fresher students is key, as statistics have shown that they are at a greater risk of being sexually abused on campus, due to perceived naivety and an initial lack of safety awareness within campus or red flags they should be wary of.
They were also informed of what consent entails and understanding that consent is freely given, reversible and specific. The team also used this opportunity to address the criminality of sexual harassment, making it clear that students should report lecturers and people in authority in the respective institutions who solicit for sexual favors, or make unwelcome sexual advances that affect the students’ educational opportunity, or create intimidating, hostile or offensive learning environment. The students were informed that sexual harassment is both a civil wrong and a criminal offense.
The students were also enlightened on the appropriate channels through which reports of such acts can be made. Conversely, students were advised to report immediately to their course adviser, counselor or the Dean of Students Affairs. The orientation expatiated on the legal provision on sexual abuse in Lagos State. The students were also reminded that rape and sexual assault by penetration carry life imprisonment, while sexual harassment is three years imprisonment. The presentation also elaborated on the safety measures to take on campus, in social settings, and the steps to be taken if a student unfortunately falls victim to the vices. The students also received information, education, and communication materials with relevant contact details and quick steps to take in case of an emergency.
In an interview with CNN‘s Van Jones, Kim Kardashian opened up about why she decided to become a lawyer.
Kim was instrumental in the release of Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old woman who’d been in an Alabama prison on a nonviolent drug charge since 1996. After her meeting with Donald Trump at the Oval Office to discuss prison reform, Alice was granted clemency.
Kim told Jones that she decided to become a lawyer because she discovered, during the process of getting Alice out of prison, that the “system is broken” and she didn’t know much about it. She said she took the step to know more about the system so as to contribute her quota to fixing it.
“I don’t want to be put in a box,” she said.
“I saw a comment where someone said, ‘You need to stay in your lane. You can have ambitions but don’t be too ambitious.’ And to me, that was that kind of like ‘shut up and dribble’ comment to where … I read it to my husband in bed, and I was just like, ‘This will even push me harder’,” she added.
“On April 21st I smiled in the face of bigotry and walked away feeling the greatest form of accomplishment,” Shaymaa Ismaa’eel wrote in a tweetposted Tuesday, April 23. That tweet included photos of Shaymaa, a 24-year-old who works with children on the autism spectrum in schools, posing and smiling in front of a group of protestors with signs attacking Islam and the prophet Muhammad. For an African-American Muslim woman in a hijab, it was a flex of epic proportions.
The tweet blew up; it now has over 230,000 likes, and 65,000 retweets, and people have said it belongs in a museum or could really sauce up a history textbook. On Instagram, one of the photos Shaymaa posted got over 200,000 likes.
Shaymaa told Teen Vogue the photo is from her trip to Washington, D.C., for a convention run by the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to building Muslim communities. Protesters were there with Islamophobic signs targeting the gathering and the viral photo op that Shaymaa seized came as she was participating in the conference.
“They have a bunch of speakers, workshops, lessons, lectures, spoken words. They have really cool competitions, like a cooking competition. They actually didn’t have it this year, which we were really looking forward to,” Shaymaa said. “When you’re in a space with people of our faith, you kind of just get an uplifting positivity.”
Teen Vogue spoke with Shaymaa about her viral moment, how it’s not the first time she’s done something like this, and what that power of positivity and being unapologetic means to her.
Teen Vogue: What was your initial reaction to the protesters?
Shaymaa Ismaa’eel: I didn’t expect that they would be there. My initial reaction was to videotape them and get some footage, just because.
Then it reminded me of two years ago when I took a picture in front of similar people with similar messages on their posters. This is just my personality. I like to make light of a situation that could be heavy. That was my initial thought: I want to take a picture, but we have a lot to do. Toward the end of the day, when the convention died down, I wanted to go back out there. They weren’t there.
I was thinking about them throughout the convention because all the stuff we’re learning inside the convention was 100% positive — positivity, love, reminding ourselves it might be tough here, but we believe in the hereafter. The second day of the convention, they weren’t there in the morning. I don’t know why I was thinking hopefully I’d get to see them again.
Talking to someone like that is talking to a brick wall. You kind of can’t really do anything to combat it.
TV: You might not be able to talk to a brick wall, but you can use it for a photo backdrop?
S.I.: They were nice props.
We were wrapping up the second day of the convention and the first thing I saw was there they are. I showed my friend and she was like, ‘It’s Sunday. It’s Easter. Don’t they have something better to do?’ I was like, ‘Clearly, they need something from us.’
I took my picture while the security guard was blowing his whistle at me.
TV: Did you get in any trouble?
S.I.: I just walked off as they were making fun of what I was doing. They were like, ‘Oh, yeah, you need to cover your face, too.’ And then someone was like, ‘You know it’s a cult when everyone’s walking around in pajamas.’ I was like, ‘Hmm, is he saying that because I’m wearing loose pants?’ I love sarcasm, so I was like, ‘Thank you for that.’
When Polly Rodriguez started sexual wellness company Unbound, she struggled to find her place among male-dominated tech entrepreneur circles. “It was hard to be taken seriously in general because of the products that we were selling,”
Rodriguez says. “And I grew up in the Midwest from a lower-middle-class background–so there was no one in my life that had started a business before.”
Instead, she turned to some of the enclaves for women founders in New York. “I think that’s how I ended up building a massive network of female founders,” she says. “I absolutely would not be here today if I didn’t have them to turn to.”
You’ll hear similar accounts from other female founders, many of whom feel shut out of more traditional networks of mentors and entrepreneurs. (Not to mention they’re starved for venture capital dollars, which are largely reserved for male founders: In 2018, just 2.3% of total capital went to women entrepreneurs.) Elle Huerta gave up on general networking events while starting Mend, a self-care app for heartbreak. “It was always interesting to me that a lot of people–men especially–couldn’t be imaginative about something that they didn’t have direct experience with,” she says. “This is something a lot of us experienced, so after a while, I stopped going to those events because they were just a waste of my time. I was like, ‘It would be more valuable for me just to go home, focus on building my company, and get traction so that I can be taken seriously.’”
For these women, building out networks of their own–much like the “mafias” of homogeneous founders spawned by tech exits–can be key to their success. In Silicon Valley, the moneyed alumni of tech heavyweights–and soon, the likes of Airbnb and Uber–have long offered guidance and financial backing to their peers and friends. For investors, entrepreneurs with that pedigree can seem like a sure bet. “They are looking for any indication or sense of validity because they’re inundated with pitches,” Rodriguez says. “You see time and time again that the generation of PayPal and Facebook went on to fund the next companies that went on to fund the next companies. And that’s largely because the VCs are like, Well, if he did well there, he’ll do well here, too. For women, we don’t have those examples to point to because all of us are basically first-time founders.”
Rodriguez often felt that potential mentors and investors in the Valley evaluated her work largely on the merits of her tech stack, and how it ranked against tech companies in more traditional verticals. “But I think women get it,” she says. “They get that making products is really hard. Branding is hard. Marketing is hard. It just doesn’t demand the same respect in the world of Silicon Valley when it comes to mentorship.”
What Rodriguez and Huerta also found was that female entrepreneurs were more candid about the challenges they had faced. “One of the reasons we bonded was because we all have this shared experience—the categories that we were in were ones where it was harder to raise money,” Huerta says of a circle of women entrepreneurs she frequently turns to, which includes Rodriguez. “But I have continued to really cultivate the relationships I have with my friends who are female founders of companies because they are so open and honest.”
If female founders tend to share more about the hurdles they’ve faced while fundraising or, say, hiring, Rodriguez believes it’s partly due to a lack of confidence. Finding a group of women founders who talk candidly about their experiences can also help silence one’s inner critic. “I think women are so much more forthright because we are more pragmatic,” she says. “We have to be. So when an investor is pressing you and is like, ‘Is there a possibility that this will fail?’ Most women are going to respond with, ‘Well, yeah.’”
Eva Goicochea, the founder of sex essentials startup Maude, has found these groups invaluable but wishes male peers were as forthcoming. “I would say the real value comes from the honesty around the topics,” she says. “I would love for men to be in the room if they would say they don’t have everything figured out. So yes, I’m pro-women and pro-women’s groups, but I’m also like, ‘Can we all just be honest about what it takes to build a startup?’”
WHAT COMPETITION?
Of course, carving out a female-friendly space isn’t just about camaraderie—it’s also good for business and helps lay the groundwork for a new ecosystem of female founders and investors. When Mend tested an ad-supported model of its app in late 2018, Huerta broached Rodriguez, who agreed to sign on as their first advertiser. (As a company in the sex tech space, Unbound has to contend with countless ad regulations, so advertising opportunities are harder to come by.) “I know Unbound really well,” she says. “I know what their mission is, and I believe in what they’re doing. So I have no problem introducing that brand to our audience. I can feel good about that, and it’s mutually beneficial.”
On Valentine’s Day, Mend put out a gift box, for which she collaborated with a number of founders in her network, including Unbound but also the minds behind vitamin startup Ritual and feminine wellness care brand Queen V. And in February, Mend hosted an event with Maude in its Brooklyn space, free of charge. “That kind of thing makes such a big difference when you’re a startup and don’t have a big marketing budget,” Huerta says.
Unbound and Mend have both also benefitted from tie-ups with founders and companies that are much further along. Mend has done multiple events with social networking platform Bumble. “Being able to plug into that audience has been huge for us,” Huerta says. “For them, we’re a drop in the bucket. So when a company that’s really been able to scale collaborates with smaller female-founded companies–which they’re doing all the time–that really helps.”
And according to Rodriguez, having Zola founder Shan-Lyn Ma as an investor and adviser for Unbound has shown her what it must be like to have the boys’ club at your disposal. “I didn’t know what a good adviser looked like until she became one of our advisers,” she says. “She opened up her network to me in a way that I was like, ‘Oh, this is how the men do it.’ She sent off a bunch of emails–and when Shan emails somebody, they’re going to take the meeting because she’s been so successful.”
In other words, this isn’t the one-upmanship that the likes of Lyft and Uber engage in. These founders recognize that as more female founders rise to the top–and clock billion dollar valuations–it boosts all female founders. In fact, some of Unbound’s “fiercest competitors” in the sex tech space are also Rodriguez’s closest friends. “Ultimately, we’re not competing against each other,” she says. “We’re competing against the patriarchy.”
Continue reading here https://www.fastcompany.com/90331125/these-women-entrepreneurs-are-working-to-help-each-other-succeed
