Honoring Women in Business

Small Business, Large Ambition.

NATCO is Texas-proud to join and represent during National Women’s Small Business Month.

We know all-too-well ⏤ from reading, hearing from others, and experience ⏤ about the imbalance, harassment, and pay difference when it comes to gender. So, we’re especially happy to be celebrating the positive aspects and, yes, the progress.

And it’s not just of the accomplishments of women. It’s the acceptance that, we think, business is business, no matter which gender is leading the company.

So, does it actually matter?

As we spotlighted last week, the United States defines a small business as having fewer than 500 employees. We definitely qualify. Woman-owned? Check. Texas-based? Check again. Why the connection of size, gender, and location? Have a look at these statistics:

As for the country itself:

• Women own 42% of businesses in the United States.

• Women-owned businesses generate $1.9 trillion annually.

• Women of color account for 50% of female business owners.

• In 1972, women only owned 4.6% of all businesses in the United States. As of 2019, women owned 42% of all businesses.

• There are nearly 13 million women-owned businesses in the United States, employing 9.4 million workers and generating revenue of $1.9 trillion.

At the end of the day, business is business. Sometimes, though, at the beginning and the middle of the day, we’ve had to deal with the gender thing. Sometimes it’s annoying, and sometimes it instills pride, and sometimes it really doesn’t matter.

We lost count of all the times a customer heard Cori Eckley’s voice or met her for the first time and was surprised that “Cori” wasn’t a guy. As in, what’s a woman doing in a man’s industry? Our answer: the freight doesn’t care if a man or a woman arranges for it to travel from Point A to Point B.

And with that, we give a shout-out to Women in Trucking (“Bringing Gender Diversity to Transportation”), a non-profit with a mission “to encourage the employment of women in the trucking industry, promote their accomplishments, and minimize obstacles faced by women working in the industry.”

Here’s to a day when the gender thing in business isn’t a thing anymore.