Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (WED) is the world’s largest celebration of women entrepreneurs, innovators, and job creators, with the goal of empowering the four billion women on the globe and bringing hope to 250 million girls living in poverty. In addition, to recognize the contributions of women to the economy, WED also seeks to gather women leaders, which will create an amplified merged message to expand businesses with social good initiatives in communities around the world. The Global Connections for Women Foundation (GC4W) was part of the Honorary Host Committee of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Day celebration at the United Nations Headquarter in New York.
The inspiration behind Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (WED), which was marked on November 19th, 2015 came from Wendy Diamond (creator and founder of WED) after volunteering for Adelante Foundation in Honduras. There, she witnessed firsthand how empowering women financially has the power to transform a community. Wendy’s motivation is that every woman and girl across the globe should be given the chance to follow their dreams, and enabling female entrepreneurs the ability to uplift one another is an important step in any environment.
Wendy Diamond is a recipient of the GC4W’s Women of the Year Award — which was presented to her during the 2015 GC4W International Women’s Day Awards at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Wendy Diamond remains committed to empowering women entrepreneurs around the globe by bringing them together for an educational event on Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. The First Women’s Entrepreneurship Day event convened on November 19th, 2014 at the United Nations in New York City.
Speakers and honorees at the 2015 Women’s Entrepreneurship Day at United Nations included:
- Marina Abramovic – Groundbreaking Performance Artist
- Leslie Blodgett – Creator, bareMinerals, and CEO of Bare Escentuals
- Caroline Donahue – Chief Marketing & Sales Officer, Intuit
- Jennifer Welter – First NFL Female Coach
- Vicki Escarra – Global CEO, Opportunity International
- Adena Friedman – President, Global Capital Access, Technology & Insights, NASDAQ
- Andrea Jung -President & CEO, Grameen America Former CEO, Avon
