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November 4, 2008 DOL Home > Newsroom > Speeches & Remarks |
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao Remarks as Delivered Women Entrepreneurship in the 21st
Century Thank you, Renee Amoore [President and Founder of The Amoore Group & member of Presidents Advisory Council to the Office of the 21st Century Workforce]. And thank you for the outstanding job you are doing as a member of President George W. Bushs Council of the 21st Century Workforce and for helping to plan this wonderful conference. It is always a thrill for me to speak to women entrepreneurs and women professionals. You are leading a powerful revolution. Once the workplace opened up to American women in the beginning of the last century, things have never been the same. Women pressed for enactment of our countrys first labor laws. Women broke the glass ceiling in corporations and hold nearly half of all executive and managerial jobs in the United States. And today women are at the forefront of entrepreneurshipcreating millions of new jobs and building our nations economic security. Were here today to talk about how this Administration is working to help you consolidate the gains youve made and to help you grow in your business or profession. But before we begin, Id like to pay special tribute to our women and men in uniform, especially the women. Women are flying Apache helicopters over Iraq. Women are medical warriors. And women are on the battlefield. Our thoughts and our prayers are with these courageous heroes, their families and their friends. Our country is so proud that freedom has found such valiant defenders. Many in this audience can identify with these pioneering women. As women entrepreneurs and women business leaders, you know the sense of satisfaction that comes from individual liberty and personal achievement. Consider the tremendous contributions that women are making to our economy: Women-owned business are growing at twice the rate of all U.S. firms, employing over 9 million workers and generating over $1 trillion in revenue. You are the engine of Americas economic growth! And women owned businesses are not only growing in number, but theyre growing in strength. From 1997 to 2000, women-owned businesses with $1 million or more in revenue grew 31 percent, while their male-owned counterparts grew by just 19 percent. Were catching up! Since 1997, the largest increase in women-owned firms came in non-traditional industries, such as construction, finance, and transportation. Soon nothing will be off-limits to the limitless talents of women in business. Women entrepreneurs are re-shaping the economic landscape, creating jobs and bringing about seismic changes in our nations business culture. These gains could not have been achieved without hard work and sacrifice. Today youve heard success stories from women who made it to the top despite many obstacles. Id like to add my own story to theirs. I came to the United States from Taiwan as an eight-year old immigrant who spoke no English. My father had left three years before my mother and myself, to forge a new life in this country. My parents came here because they had tremendous confidence in America. And they had confidence in the abundant opportunities and the basic decency of the American people. The old adagethat you can make it in America by working hardis not a slogan to me. My own experiencesand those of my familyhave certainly found it to be true. And today its true for all women, as professional and economic barriers have been torn down. A sign of our growing influence is the record number of women President George W. Bush has appointed to high-level positions. Im proud to be the first Asian American woman in history to serve in the Presidents cabinet. I have three women colleagues in the cabinetInterior Secretary Gale Norton, Agriculture Secretary Ann Venneman, EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman and of course, National Security Advisor Dr. Condoleeza Rice. Im also proud of the nine remarkable women Presidential Appointees on our leadership team at the Department of Labormore than any other cabinet department in the administration. In fact, the Labor Department has the highest number of women in top leadership positions of any cabinet department in the history of our countryfully half! We dont just talk about womens progresswe make it happen! This Administration also recognizes that women entrepreneurs and women business leaders are vital to job creation and economic security. Thats why were implementing new policies aimed at helping you succeed. With nearly three-quarters of all women in the workforce, you know better than anyone how difficult it is to balance work and family. So the Labor Department is putting the finishing touches on a proposal to encourage flexible arrangements in the workplace to help balance work and family needs. And you know how difficult it is to attract and retain quality employees especially when an attractive benefits package means double-digit increases in health-insurance costs. Thats why this Administration supports Association Health Plans. These plans will help small businesses pool their resources, spread their risk and offer quality, affordable health care coverage for their workers. AHPs can close the coverage gap for workers employed by small businesses. And the President has proposed a jobs and growth plan specifically designed to meet the needs of small business, which are increasingly owned by women and minorities. The size of the presidents jobs and growth package is still being negotiated on Capitol Hill. But the objectives of his economic plan remain the same. The President wants to:
And you can count on this Administration to find other ways to help women succeed. President George W. Bush has issued an Executive Order mandating competition in services and contracts. It calls for unbundling large federal contracts whenever possible, to level the playing field for small entrepreneurs. The President believes that small business owners must have a fair shot at competing for federal contracts! And recently, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Small Business Administration created a website www.women-21.gov specifically designed for women entrepreneurs. This one-stop-shop for women in business includes information on procurement, access to capital, health insurance and retirement security. All of todays events will be webcast on this site in the near future, so you can get information from the sessions you may have missed. And just yesterday the Labor Department launched a new interactive web-based toolthe FirstStep Employment Law Advisor. This tool will help employers and employees understand and comply with our nations labor laws. This compliance assistance resource is available at www.dol.gov/elaws and will be particularly useful for small business owners. The goal of compliance assistance is to reach out and help the regulated community understand the more than 180 laws that cover almost every aspect of the workplace. By going online and answering a few questions, business owners can find out which laws apply to them and how to meet the laws requirements. Booklets describing the compliance assistance program are available at the Labor Departments exhibit booth at this conference. These are just a few of the special tools this Administration has created to help you grow your business, expand your knowledge base and strengthen your skills. I know many of you have traveled from other parts of Pennsylvania, from New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Delaware to be here today. Thank you so much for coming. I also want to thank our distinguished panelistsand the women entrepreneurs who prepared the Taste of Philadelphiafor helping to make this conference a success. The energy and enthusiasm of todays women in business has inspired a whole new generation to aim for the top and to be satisfied with nothing less than success. Thank you for being such tremendous role models. And thank you for everything you are doing to ensure that our economy remains strong and that our country remains a beacon of opportunity and hope for generations to come. # # # _________________________________________________________________ |
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