Mumpreneurs? This is what Staples had to say…

Posted By Laura in Just for You, Talking About Stuff, Work from home | 3 comments

You probably noticed that earlier in the week a got a le-e-e-tle bit riled up about the use of the word Mumpreneur. It looked a bit like this…

Well, it was triggered by a few companies who all happened to land in my inbox in the space of half an hour – and Staples was one of them, for running a ‘Mumpreneur of the Year 2012’ competition in conjunction with Netmums. It’s actually a totally fantastic competition, with a brilliant prize package that any small business owner would be thrilled to win. But WHY are they using the ‘M’ word to describe it?

Netmums have been curiously conspicuous by their absence in the debate, but fair play to Staples they not only responded to defend themselves online, but they have mailed me a full response, which they’re happy for me to share with you…

We wanted to get in touch following your blog about the term ‘mumpreneur’ and the interesting discussion it has ignited. We can see that there are mixed views about the term.

We chose it because it already has some currency and also because our award is run exclusively in partnership with Netmums.
As Siobhan Freegard at Netmums says,”We were happy to agree with the term for the campaign as we believe the term is primarily understood to be women who, after having children, have set up small scale family friendly businesses usually selling family-related products with hours to fit around children. They are usually mums dipping their toe into the world of business on their own for the first time. Many mumpreneurs cross over into being full scale businesses, others don’t as they want to keep it manageable – and either way is fine.”

For us, ‘mumpreneur’ simply unites the theme of our competition – entrepreneurship – with the audience – mums.  The use of the term carries no judgement and we are not making a statement.

We can see why some people may not like the term, but we want to assure we have the best of intentions; to inspire women with children who have entrepreneurial aspirations, to pursue and fulfil these.

Our award scheme with Netmums has been designed to elevate and empower women in business, whether established or looking to start up; to show our commitment to this, we have included mentoring sessions with Amee Chande, MD of Staples UK and Direct, and a business grant in the prize.

We understand and acknowledge the concerns made in your blog and hope the above clarifies our position, in conjunction with Netmums, on the use of the word ‘mumpreneurs’ for this award.

So – what do you think? The aims are genuine and worthy… but is there EVER a time or place that it’s okay to clarify a business by the gender of it’s owner?

I have a sneaky feeling that Amee Chande would be pretty furious if she was always described as “The female MD of StaplesUK”. What the arses has her gender got to do with her job title?