National Women’s Business Council Meets to Recap, Recommend Policy

The National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) met last month to discuss their activity over the 2020 fiscal year and detail their policy recommendations and current projects. Broadcast live on Microsoft Teams and free to the public, the meeting focused on the work of NWBC’s four subcommittees: Access to Capital and Opportunity, Women in STEM, Rural Women’s Entrepreneurship, and Communications.

A meeting of the council

NWBC Executive Director Nina Roque briefly opened the meeting before passing the baton to Jovita Carranza, Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Carranza stressed how important it was to the administration to foster an environment of growth and opportunity for female business owners, especially during the pandemic. Afterwards, NWBC Chair Liz Sara took the mic and presented data from the recent fiscal year. Among the data she showed was a pie chart illustrating the percentage of policy recommendations the U.S. government implemented. Fifty percent of the previous fiscal year’s policy recommendations were at least partially implemented in the following year.

The policy recommendations each subcommittee laid out mostly dealt with funding, much of which was for COVID-19 disaster relief. Subcommittee chairs/representatives including Nicole Cober (Communications), Maria Rios (Access to Capital and Opportunity), Jessica Flynn (Rural Women’s Entrepreneurship), and Monica Stynchula (Women in STEM) thoroughly dissected the challenges and successes each subcommittee faced this past fiscal year and their recommendations for policies moving forward.

Afterwards

To conclude the meeting, the council opened the virtual floor to a few questions from the Teams chat. They also held a post-meeting public listening session to field any other questions or concerns. A recording of the meeting is available on NWBC’s website and their YouTube channel. Minutes will be available within 90 days of the September 29^th meeting.

Women own 45% of all U.S. businesses. This would not be possible without councils and associations like the NWBC and the people who work tirelessly within them. For more information on this meeting, past meetings, and the NWBC itself, check out NWBC.gov.