Secretary of State Hillary Clinton explains four programs intended to encourage entrepreneurship in women across the globe (John Lund/MNS)
WASHINGTON- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced four new initiatives to help advance economic opportunities for women across the globe on Wednesday.
“I believe so strongly that talent is universal but opportunity is not,” Clinton said. “What we’re doing is trying to pry open those doors of opportunity for more people to walk through.”
Clinton announced the initiatives to empower females in business at a breakfast co-sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation held at the State Department. The new programs provide funding and support for women in fields from technology to politics and the arts.
The projects include a partnership between American technology companies and women in seven Muslim majority countries, a women’s entrepreneurship summit in the Asia-Pacific region, an international grant-making fund for women and girls and a women’s innovation award. Each of the four programs is funded through a public-private partnership with companies ranging from Goldman Sachs to Rockefeller.
“The women’s fund will bring together the resources and expertise of both the public and private sectors,” Clinton said. “We know that everywhere in the world are groups of people who are taking these issues on- we want to be your partners. If you’re facing obstacles we want to help you overcome them.”
The plans were warmly received by a roomful of international delegates from the Presidential Entrepreneurship Summit that was held this week in Washington. The predominantly female crowd included executives from a range of industries including financial companies and philanthropic organizations as well as representatives from foreign governments.
Clinton was joined for the announcement by Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation and Melanne Verveer, ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s Issues. Together they addressed why the issue of women’s entrepreneurship was a pressing issue.
“Women still do two-thirds of all the work in the world but earn only about 5 percent of the income,” Rodin said. “We must do more, and with more urgency, to empower women and a focus on scalable innovation can and will make a difference.”