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Working women icon reborn in Ozarks’ business community

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Rosie the Riveter, the World War II cultural icon that represented women working in factories, is again representing female strength in the Ozarks. Ladies who work in industries from blue collar to technology now have a resource to better attain leadership positions.

Armed with a $10,000 grant from the national Women’s Foundation, a grassroots effort by local women kicked off the Rosie initiative in April. It’s picking up steam, as evidenced by a Nov. 17 launch party with over 150 women in attendance at The eFactory.

“I was absolutely pleasantly surprised by the number in attendance at the launch party,” said Brooke Bigham, a Rosie member and vice president of North Star Equity Group LLC. “Women shared with women and got the word out, that was obvious.”

Designed for networking and professional development for women, the Rosie program is a partnership between the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s young professionals group The Network and Missouri State University’s business incubator. It was created by Rachel Anderson, an entrepreneurial specialist at The eFactory, and Paige Oxendine, program coordinator for The Network.

Anderson said the local Rosie program is the first of its kind and organizers have a vision to grow it regionally. One of the group’s aims is to foster a female presence in boardrooms and in the C-suite.

Anderson and Oxendine collaborated with Stephanie Matthews, director of corporate and foundation relations at MSU, who applied for the national grant.

“The Missouri State Foundation seeks partnerships which can extend our reach and help us to continue providing quality educational opportunities,” Matthews said. “We greatly admire Women’s Foundation’s commitment to equality and equity for women. The vision for Rosie is a perfect fit with the work Women’s Foundation is doing.”

Intended to leverage existing resources through The eFactory and The Network, Anderson said the program also would help women by way of a board placement pipeline and training, connect female business owners and entrepreneurs, and facilitate mentorship among businesswomen.

“What we try to do is meet with every Rosie member, and we follow up and figure out what we can do and do a behind-the-scenes placement based on what openings exist and where their interests lie,” Anderson said, pointing to an example of a woman fearful to speak with co-workers about her desires to change positions or industries.

There is no cost for membership, which currently is over 200 women. While designed exclusively for females, Anderson said developing activities may incorporate Rosie advocates.

“We know men are great advocates for female leaders,” she said.

Bigham said it’s more than a networking organization.

“It gives men or leadership in general a resource to be able to reach out and find a group of women who have expressed an interest in finding leadership roles,” she said. “Leadership positions, private boards, public boards, names like Hallmark or Nestle, they would love to have more women in leadership, but they just don’t know where to go.”

Bigham, who heard about Rosie through the Women’s Initiative at Arvest Bank, said men usually seek out other men for leadership positions – but not because they don’t believe women can fulfill the roles.

“They say they don’t know women for the positions. Rosie is a way to bridge that gap,” she said.

Rosie organizers now are creating a database of members so they can plug a qualified woman into the position should they be contacted by a company or nonprofit.

Matthews said local data is hard to come by, but testimony about the lack of visible female leadership on boards is prevalent. In Springfield, the numbers are comparable to national levels when it comes to smaller businesses and organizations. According to Maggie Castrey, a member of Nancy O’Reilly’s staff with the nonprofit Women Connect4Good Inc., financial firms and Springfield’s largest companies have the least number of women as C-suite leaders. It inches up in percentage terms at area nonprofits, with 13 percent representation by females, accounting firms, 22 percent, and law firms, 32 percent. Castrey cited Springfield Business Journals’s Book of Lists data.

Matthews believes there’s been a shift this year.

Oxendine said while The Network’s board training program traditionally is only open to members, they opened it up to anyone this year. It was co-promoted by The eFactory.

“We had 40 registrants and 25 were female,” she said.

Isabel’s House Development Coordinator Millie Schuchmann found out about the Rosie program through social media.

“It seems very timely. A lot of women in our area are thirsty for this,” said Schuchmann, now a member. “We want to learn from each other and mentor each other and make a difference in our community.”


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