I’ve been pretty quiet this week, but I wanted to put the work in and learn as much as possible before posting about everything going on with the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Northern Apothecary - Supporting Women-Owned Businesses

When I first launched Northern Apothecary, one of my core values in starting up was supporting women-owned small businesses. Simply, women who are entrepreneurs and makers, some being stay at home moms like me who make their crafts to sell and help support their families.
But the events in the past two weeks reminded me of how much more work there still is to do to and to not stop there. We must work to dismantle racial prejudice. I have been doing a lot of reading and research of my own to figure out how I can do better.

I believe that when we make money more equal for everyone and when we start closing the money gaps, there is a tremendous positive ripple effect, not just for women themselves, but for their families and our society.

When you support women-owned businesses, you are investing in women's economic empowerment, gender parity in commerce, diverse communities, and the growth of the economy overall. Buying women-owned is both socially conscious and economically sound.

Why Supporting Women in Business Matters

Here's why supporting women-owned business matters:

Over the past 20 years, the number of Women-Owned businesses has grown 114 percent compared to the overall national growth rate of 44 percent for all businesses.
As of 2017, Women-Owned businesses account for 39 percent of all businesses in the U.S. but only 4.2 percent of overall business revenues.
Women entrepreneurs face challenges in getting fair access to capital. Just 4 percent of the total dollar value of all small business loans goes to women business owners.
Women reinvest up to 90 percent of their income in their families and communities, compared to 40 percent for men.

Black Women in Business

Your support for women-owned businesses is an investment into a future of economic success, innovation, and equality. But the path to equality looks different for Black women. Systemic racism has lead directly to wealth inequality, especially for Black women.

For all that we hear about the average woman’s pay gap of 82 cents to a white man’s dollar — the pay gap for Black women is just 61 cents. (Imagine having to work nearly seven extra months just to earn the same pay as a male co-worker.

More importantly, the average gender wealth gap — the amount of money a woman *owns* compared to a white man — is just 32 cents on average and just $0.01 for Black women.

You read that right: one penny.

How Can We Help?

There are lots of ways to help take a stand, make a change, and be a part of the solution. You can donate money to a local, grassroots organization. You can join a protest if you feel you can do so safely. You can educate yourself and, if you are white, talk to other white people about racial justice.

But one of the most direct and sustainable ways to support the black community is to shop at black-owned businesses, many of which have also been disproportionally affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest jobs report showed 2.5 million U.S. jobs added in May. But those same figures showed unemployment grew during the same period for African Americans and had in fact risen to a decade-high. Across the country, African-Americans are disproportionately suffering from the impact of both the coronavirus and its economic fallout, and have struggled to access federal aid programs designed to mitigate the damage.

“Businesses owned by black women, a fast-growing segment, grew 163% from 2007 to 2018. There were 2.4 million businesses owned by African American women in 2018, and most were owned by women age 35 to 54,” the 2018 State of Women-Owned Business Report stated.

These businesses are growing at three times the national rate. But it isn’t all good news.

“So, what’s happening is minorities are finding more success owning their own businesses, as opposed to going into environments to get a job, moving up the corporate ladder or being excluded altogether,” according to Dr. Kenneth Harris, president, and CEO of the Midwest regional office of the National Business League in Detroit.

Look For Black-Owned Businesses Locally

Michigan leads in the number of Black woman-owned businesses. “Detroit has the largest concentration of black women entrepreneurs in the country. There are 108,000 businesses owned by black people in Michigan, based on 2012 U.S. Census statistics, and there are more than 49,000 black-owned businesses in the city of Detroit, ranked behind Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Houston,” said Harris. However, annual sales at businesses owned by black women are two times smaller than the next-lowest demographic group, Hispanic women, and nearly five times smaller than for all women-owned businesses, according to a Federal Reserve report.

Shop Black-Owned Businesses Online

Please consider supporting the following businesses however possible. If you can make a purchase from these shops, please do! You can also show support by following their business accounts on social media. These statistics moved me, and I know I will be doing my part in consciously supporting more Black woman-owned businesses.

THIS IS THE BEST LIST I HAVE FOUND: https://themadmommy.com/black-owned-etsy-shops

Update 8/13/2020: This is a new list published by Ellevest:

https://www.ellevest.com/magazine/elle-raisers/black-women-owned-businesses

Please, if you or someone you know owns a business that would fit on this list, tag them in the comments and post a link to shop!