BY JENNIFER ARMBRUST

A holistic vision for a new economic paradigm founded on feminist principles.

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In 2015, I was invited to give a talk on the topic of Revolution. This was sheer providence because I hadn’t done anything particularly revolutionary up until that point. And I had never, in my career, given a public speech.

I presented my Proposals for the Feminine Economy to a sold-out audience of over 450 people at the Portland Art Museum on a sunny June morning. My goal was to offer an accessible, gendered critique of capitalism. I wanted to illustrate that capitalism is a patriarchal economic system, one that prizes character qualities coded as masculine.

I shared my vision of a Feminine Economy and put forth my 12 Principles for Prototyping a Feminist Business.

The talk became a book and led me to launch Feminist Business School. I believe it is not hyperbolic to say that The Proposals gave birth to the field of feminist entrepreneurship. In the decade since, I’ve sold thousands of copies of the book, taught hundreds of students, and empowered countless small business owners, entrepreneurs, and administrators to bring their feminist principles into their business practices (loud and proud, baby!).

While there is still much feminist work to be done, the ideas I put forth in The Proposals continue to provide a roadmap for the tasks at hand. Just when I think it might be time for twelve new principles, I’m reminded that I’m still learning how to practice the first one: You have a body. ✌︎

PROPOSALS FOR THE FEMININE ECONOMY

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When I dissect the ideals of capitalism—its ideology—it seems to me to be a very masculine economy.

If capitalism is an economy that values masculine traits, what could another economy look like?

THE FEMININE ECONOMY
PROPOSES A NEW SET OF VALUES AND A REDISTRIBUTION OF MONEY AND POWER BASED ON FEMININE PRINCIPLES.

WHY? WHY DO WE NEED A NEW ECONOMY? DOESN’T THE ONE WE HAVE WORK JUST FINE?

No, CAPITALISM IS NOT WORKING

AM I PROPOSING CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM? AGAIN—NO

I’m proposing business as a site to embody our values, create new economies, and experiment with new distributions of power and resources.

That THROUGH ITERATION, EXPERIMENTATION, AND INNOVATION, IT’S POSSIBLE THAT WE WILL FIND A WAY OUT OF THE DYSFUNCTION OF WHERE WE ARE NOW AND INTO SOMETHING NEW.

“Feminist entrepreneurship requires that we—as feminists and entrepreneurs—develop our critical consciousness. It necessitates that we engage with questions of sexism and exploitation, of racism, classism, elitism, and accessibility in our own businesses and in the broader business paradigm.

Feminist entrepreneurship asks us to take a hard look at the world around us—at our society and culture, at our institutions and government, at our communities, at our relationships (including our relationship with ourselves), and especially at our businesses—to find the places we are complicit with, or even actively perpetuating (often unknowingly) sexism and other forms of oppression.

Feminist entrepreneurship also requires that we quit equating masculine principles with success and power, and feminine principles with inadequacy and weakness.”

—Proposals for the Feminine Economy, Jennifer Armbrust, p. 48

To do something as audacious as call your business “feminist” requires showing up every day with humility, heart, intrepid creativity, criticality, courage, self-love & a passion for growth. It requires accountability to yourself, your business, and to the larger social project of dismantling patriarchal & oppressive systems.

“Feminist entrepreneurship isn’t just concerned with personal growth or creating an isolated utopia within your company. It’s about social change. It’s about identifying the larger impact you can make through your company, the legacy you will leave in your community and the world.

When we remember that there are hundreds of years of feminist scholarship, it becomes clear that to distill all of those insights and wisdom into a workable framework for entrepreneurship is going to take some time. We won’t figure it out overnight. And, I can’t do it alone.

As a starting point, I’ve attempted to identify 12 Principles for Prototyping a Feminist Business to serve as my framework for this project—a road map for making the Feminine Economy real. I consider these a working draft. I invite you to use them, to modify them, and to write your own rules for feminist entrepreneurship.”

—Proposals for the Feminine Economy, Jennifer Armbrust, p.52-53

As we venture together into the uncharted territory of feminist entrepreneurship, we will unquestionably make mistakes, have blind spots, & grapple with constraints.

That’s okay. As long as we continue to take accountability for ourselves and practice forgiveness, we will learn and grow and find new ways.

The beauty & magic lies in the journey, not the destination. We make the road by walking.

—Proposals for the Feminine Economy, Jennifer Armbrust, p. 89

GOOD NEWS!

Feminist Business School is back

We’ve got our classic best-selling courses and some new offerings coming your way. Hop on the waitlist and you’ll be the first to know when we open registration.

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REFERENCES

1. bell hooks, Feminism is for Everybody

2. Consider Everything an Experiment comes from Immaculate Heart College Art Department Rules

3. Myth of the Meritocracy comes from The Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh

4. We Make the Road by Walking is a book by Myles Horton and Paolo Freire on education and social change.