Transcripts For CSPAN3 Entrepreneurial Women 20171102

From three women about their experiences Running Companies and working to promeet increase ownership and nvrsment roles for women in American Business and industry. This is just under an hour. I know everybody is having a good time. And net working and moving the enterprise forward. We have two votes at noon. Well be on a short string here. That shouldnt in any way dent grate the importance of this hearing. Of the Small Business committee. And what were going to do today is explore ways to help women owned businesses reach their full potential and grow the american economy. I want to thank my colleague senator shaheen for working together on this. A matter of great importance to all of us. And to all america. Even though all america sometimes doesnt know it. Fair statement. As you know october is National Women Small Business month. Which sefbs as a great reminder that female entrepreneurs own more than 11 million businesses in the country. And employ more than 9 million workers. They contribute 1. 6 trillion in sales to the National Economy and capable of more as its Fastest Growing sector. Administrator linda mcman joined me in idaho. And we visited a number of Small Businesses in the treasure valley. My wife and i and traveled to a number of businesses and had the opportunity to meet with some women owned businesses there. I often say entrepreneurs and Small Business owners want more than anything is to have time to devote to the growing their business. Women as many of you can attest to oftentimes are working to juggle even more priorities than the male koircounter parts for obvious reasons. And negatively impacted by the time and resources that it takes to comply with the complicated and burdensome tax code. And other regulatory systems. It is for the reason the tax reform can and should be part of todays discussion. In fact the National Association of womens Business Owners ask this committee to present on tax reform at their annual conference just laes woke. Because that is the most important issue to the hundreds of business of women Business Owners who belong to that organization. Additionally the president and board of directors of Women Impacting Public Policy were at this desk in this very room. Just a few weeks ago for a by partisan discussion centered on the need for tax reform. With staff from my office and my colleague senator shaheens office. To participate. Our hearing today will touch on many issues affecting Women Entrepreneurs. I want to note this is a tax reform is a top mind issue. I believe on all of you are parts. Again thank you for being here today. I look forward to a robust discussion. Id ask you each of the Panel Members first of all thank you for agreeing to come to the hearing today. And presenting for us. I would ask you to try to stay with the five minutes and. Ask that you submit anything that you want in writing and we will certainly include it in the record. So with that, id like to yield. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Im delight td were holding this hearing this morning. Because women owned firms are cig kantd as we look at the future of employment in the country. Theyre growing 5 times faster than the national average. But women owned businesses still face head winds. On average they are earn less than male owned firms they employ only 8 of the nations private work force and produce 4 of business revenue. A share that has remained the same for 20 years. So the question really is why . Why are the other statistics around women owned businesses not changing. Thats what well explore this morning. I look forward to hearing the testimony of our out standing witnesses and i will submit my full statement for the record. Thank you, very much. Senator. Id like to introduce our three witnesses. And like to welcome Miss Elizabeth gore. Who is an entrepreneur in residence. Never heard that title before. Who drives initiative to support dells goals around help lg small and Medium Business scale. And prosper. Im pleased to welcome tracy chad well. Founding partner of 1843 capitol. Early stage Venture Capital fund. And id also like to recognize michelle rechards. Executive director of the great lakes Women Business counsel. We know the counsel does great work. And she has been there since the inception in 1984. So thank you for coming. And ms. Gore will start with you. Great. Thank you, chairman. Thank you, senator for being here. Senator shaheen. Its a real honor to testify about what i think could be the greatest by partisan opportunity that this country has seen. Its Women Entrepreneurs. Just this week i have been in san francisco, south dakota, new york city and d. C. Im from northern california. And i can tell you that women in all of those areas have the most potential to succeed. They are facing numerous barriers. While we are starting a businesses twice as fast as male counter parts, very proud of that. We have a higher fail rate. And only 2 of us are making over 1 million with the businesses in the country. I think thats a 98 tuopportuny that we have to improve. I hope none of you have the number seven as your favorite number. Were stuck on seven. Only 7 of Venture Capital in the country. Only 7 of capitalists are women. And something thats important only 7 of stories in the Business Media are about women founders. We have to see it to be it. We have to change that. Over the last two and a half years i have had the great pleasure to serve in my home state of texas. At dell. Im also an entrepreneur myself in the cofounder of alice. The first ever Machine Learning and ai tool that helps any women minority or veteran founder find these resources they need to scale. I will tell you that through the both of those work i found the barriers sit in four pillars. Access to capital. Net works, technology, and talent. Those really are the barriers. So ill start with access to capital. This is the number one issue facing women in my opinion. Whether im in sue falls and a i pliing for a loan. Or sitting in Silicon Valley after my series funding. This is a major problem. I think we need as a recommendation to incent vise to increase the 7 number. It is going down in fact. Its gone down substantially. I think the 2017 numbers will show a significant drop in Venture Capital. I think my colleague will talk about that. Bias and unconscious bias does exist. The me too movement is not just about hollywood. Id like to encourage to continue to strengthen. A critical part of the country. While women are five times likely to get loans and shows how important it is. Theyre actually the amounts they get are two and a half times lower than the male counter parts. So something i hope we look into. Another thing is certification. Women owned business certification. But theres one thing that we need to change. The program with the u. S. Sba is an excellent program. However, if you get venture funding and those capitalists are male, you are not considered women owned anymore. So you cannot get the certification and be venture backed. This is something that we can simply change through legislation. That is my top recommendation for the year. The second is lets continue to work with innovators and understand new sourcesover funding. Dell spends 4 billion a year in women and moirnty owned businesses through the supply chain. Crowd funding that didnt exist seven years ago is actually supporting women more than men. So what other sources can we do . Most women actually depend on banks for access to capital. We talk about venn dhur. 90 plus percent of women are depending on bank loans. 30 of companies owned by women were able to kbet bank loans in 2016. Access to net work. We dont golf as much as gentlemen do. What are the net works with e need to fine. Whether they are digital, i love the grants going to accelerators. Very important. Access to technology. Every Single Company is now a technology company. Women are less likely to have access Tech Knowledge and we have to continue to move that forward. On behalf of my fellow amazing Women Entrepreneurs, this is a time of opportunity. Its a time that yes were challenged. We are the best economic if we get the access to capital we need we will bring 30 billion in gdp to the country in one year. Thank you. Thank you. That was terrific. Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the senate committee. On Small Business and entrepreneur ship. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Before your committee. Its a pleasure and honor to introduce myself and give my perspective on how to strengthen the system for women. Im an attorney who had my first exposure to private equity when i worked and helped him set up a fund to invest in china. I became a partner of a billion dollar growth capitol fund. For the last five years i have been investing in women founders in the technology area. I have founded a Venture Capital fund called 1843 capitol. The year that the first computer program. My partners are incredible women. An operator and engineer who built and sold her own Cyber Security Company Called vigilant. The ceo of the prong a Women Entrepreneur ship platform that operates in seven cities in north america delivering Educational Programming and premium net working frg women founders. Funders and community partners. 1843 and project are partners in the effort to scale Women Businesses. The good news the really good news is things are working. The accelerator programs mentor ship and seed investors in the e koe system are allowing women owned businesses to thrive. The project alone sees 2,000 female funded companies per year. Channelling 50 million in seed Stage Capital to early stage companies. As youd say earlier nationwide women owned businesses are growing in number. At five times the national average. This is no doubt due to Public Private partnership. Organizations like the Women Business Development Counsel around the country have been a true catalyst. The sba has been a strong partner. Guaranteeing loans they are giving women the fuel they need to scale the businesses. And they are doing this without taxpayer subsidy. As a Venture Capitalist i have had the opportunity to invest in world class companies. Founded by women. That are successful and do great things for the world. Beauty counter is women founded which produces personal product for care which are free of toxic chemicals. Revenues much stronger than most of the unicorns and employ 35,000 consultants. Silver nest is a company in colorado that uses technology to match people over 50 with roommates. This helps them solve a problem of Financial Insecurity and loneliness. Really interesting an Wealth Management platform. This helps banks and registered advisors Wealth Management. So everyone can save and informs regardless of the size of the account. Something trouly unique is user experience. Most people are intimidated by math and finance and the thought of diversified portfolio. She knew this and developed an interface that was visual, intuitive and accessible to everyone. She knew to have the biggest impact it had to have a foundation in design. As we move into the next chapter in technology the skills of coding are going to become commodities. What will win is creativity, design and sales is approximate marketing. By far the most serious barrier to the women is the lack of funding. Women are able to create businesses now because they the cost of starting a business has come down. And they dont need outside investment to get started. However the capital to scale is inaccessible. Beauty count had trouble raising capital until they reached 20 million in. A lot of reasons including bias women Venture Partners compromise 3 . One of the most impactful things u. S. Senators could do is encourage your state Pension Funds to take a harder look at women managers and diversify under lying port knoll owe. It is impossible to legislate against unconscious bias. However it is possible to support and fund positive role models. Thank you very much. Thank you, chairman. Rank Ranking Member shaheen. Im sorry. Im really bad at the Technology Audio part. Im right on point. My name is michelle richards. Now before i discuss the current e koe system for Women Entrepreneurs, i want to share our experience as an organization dedicated to supporting women Business Owners for the past 33 years. I had a chance to start the organization and as an sba micro lender since 1993, we have made over 6. 5 million in loans with the average size of 20,000. These loans have created 1,700 jobs. Early 1990, we became an sba Women Business center. This was important because it created a Stable Funding for us to build a platform for our training and counselling program. And we have been able to serve 10,000 women Business Owners in and entrepreneurs with it. For the past 20 years we have been a certified partner for the Women Business entrer niz national counsel. We bank. We currently have 1120 certified women Business Owners that generate 12. 3 billion in revenue annually and employ 48,000 u. S. Workers. Amazing. I am proud of our efforts to revitalize detroit. To date the Detroit Loan Program has provided 1. 3 million in loans creating 72 jobs and retaining 100 more. For Small Businesses to succeed they need capacity. Capital and customers or contracts. In my vow Women Entrepreneurs welcome access it all three. Capital access is a chronic barrier for women Business Owners. Our team has heard countless stories of the bias against women when they attempt to obtain business finance. I recently was told by an established Women Business owner a bank lender came up to her business and asked if her husband would be joining them. When she indicated that he would thot be attending because hes not part of the business, the lender immediate lift. Closed his portfolio. These are backed by statistics compiled by this committee. If women are arent able to access equal capital. They cant grow to full potential. Women are highly under represented in federal contracting. Now although the federal government met its goal of 5 of eligible federal contracts to women owned businesses in 2015, it failed to reach the mark in 2016. The market share needs to grow because federal contracting has a tremendous impact on many women owned businesses. For example, just one of the many examples we have. President of medal ops received a first contract with air force for 80,000 in 2015. After two years of trying. That contract created the pass performance needed to win her most recent contract award for 9. 1 million. Finally women are unable to access basic tools that we need that we know work for them. They need training and coaching to grow their businesses and become job creators. And it is important to modernize and grow a nationwide net work of counsellors. And mentors for Women Entrepreneurs. As an sba Women Business center micro lender and we bank certifying partner. Great experience the offer the committee recommendations. First and foremost, we need to modernize the Women Business center program. The house of representatives included the Women Business center legislation as part of the fiscal year 18 National Defense authorizization act. Which would increase the 30 yearold cap on grant level. 30 years. We strongly urge the senate to keep the provision and the mdaa. Second i encourage the committee to push sba on the implementation of women owned Small Business Third Party Certification rules. We have500 wosb certified women in our center. Finally, there should be a dedicated commitment to programs that are proven to provide capital to women Business Owners. Congress should continue to support programs like the Small Business Microloan Program and the Community Development Financial Institution fund. Chairman reesh, Ranking Member shaheen and distinguished senators, thank you for this opportunity to present this testimony. Thank you so much to all three of you. I noted that all three of you made reference to the capital situation and the access to it, and those figures certainly arent pretty, as far as the capital that is received by Women Entrepreneurs. Anybody who has even a passing knowledge of economics knows that access to capital and freeflow of capital is absolutely critical to the success of a family of a business and, indeed, of a nation, and thats why america stands out so much from others in our economy because of the freeflow of capital. Barriers in that regard really need to be knocked down. I note, ms. Gore, youre finding a flaw in the federal system where womenowned aa certification is lost when they get funds from a male Venture Capital fund. It would be interesting to see what would happen if they found out that the banks that the womenowned businesses were getting money from was run by an allmale board of directors. Which is exactly the same situation. So senator shaheen and i have already agreed were going to take a run at this. Federal government doesnt always and thats a result of your testimony, by the way. The federal government doesnt always do things exactly the way they should, but thats why were here. Well take a run at that for you. With that, senator shaheen. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and i hope all the members of the committee will join us in that effort, because it seems like thats a nobrainer that would make a big difference in access to capital. I want to go back to an issue that ms. Richards referenced, and i think you did as well, ms. Chadwell, in your discussion about Venture Capital. Right now the country is having what i think is a very important conversation about sexual harrassment in the workplace. Fortunately a lot of people are coming forward and saying this is not right. Unfortunately, weve seen that in terms of access to Venture Capital as well. Earlier this year several female entrepreneurs told the New York Times about unwanted sexual advances made by influential Venture Capitalists. Last week founder of rent the runway, jennifer hyman, discussed the harrassment she experienced while raising 900 million from Venture Capitalists. So clearly this is something that exists in the Venture Capital industry as well, and i wonder, ms. Chadwell, if you could talk about this a little bit. Are experiences like ms. Hymans commonplace, and how do you see trying to address this issue . I think experiences like this are commonplace in every industry. I think weve been seeing it in the entertainment and the Venture Capital industry specifically as of late, but i think its systemic, and i think that a lot of issues like this will go away as we get closer to parody where we have more women ceos, and when we have more women venture managers. And not just the sexual harrassment issue, but we have other issues were working on as well, like equal pay and also maternity and family issues. A lot of those may not have to be legislated if you have women ceos. Thank you. Do either of you want to add anything to that . Thank you. All that would be added is bias against us is so strong. There are formulas that have worked over time, and when your formula is working and youre making money, it really takes leadership from folks like you all to push those industries to think outside. When i was raising money the last two years, i heard over and over anything thats women focused is not a large enough market, its a niche market, even though were 51 of the population and had 81 consumer spending. So i think that bias is pretty rampant. Thank you, and i want to go back to the access to capital as well. Weve got a chart here that shows what all of you pointed out in terms of the situation with womenowned businesses and their access to capital. So you can see the blue columns are majority women owned and all other firms are the orange column. So we can see the difference in terms of Venture Capital funding, the total amount of conventional Business Loans and then the prime contract awards, which is cannotexactly what allu had to say, but when you see it on that chart, it really brings it home. Just the disadvantages that womenowned businesses face. Ms. Richards, you told a story that actually reminded me of my own experience about the entrepreneur who was turned away because her husband wasnt there. I remember when i first was applying for credit, my husband had to sign the bank forms in order to do that, because we hadnt yet changed the laws. So how do we continue to address these issues, and what other steps can we take to prevent instances of bias by bank lenders against women Business Owners . Disclosure is critical. So 1071 of the dodd frank act requires data to be collected on women and minorityowned businesses and the loans made to them. Until we can start quantifying, really, the discrepancy, instead of just using anecdotal information, were not going to really be able to get to some of the roots of it. Small business lending is, in so many ways, different than all the other bank lending because it is not solely numbers driven. Theres so many elements of it. Lenders decide if they want this business and this loan in their portfolio. So its very different. We need to start creating some parameters and implement 1071 of dodd frank act. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Sdp thank you, senator shaheen. Senator ernst. Thank you, Ranking Members, i appreciate it. The conversation has been striking this morning, and even as a woman, i shake my head when i hear about the lack of access thats available out there. I do want to go back to something that senator reesh had mentioned when we were focused on tax reform. Earlier this week, a woman from hamilton county, iowa who owns a Small Business reached out to me about the importance of tax reform. And like many of the Small Business owners that ive had the opportunity to interact with and speak with as im out doing my 99county tour, she said the biggest two obstacles that she has for her Small Business are the high taxes and the regulations. So, really, two burdensome areas for her. Today her marginal tax rate, and for other Small Business owners, they can get as high as 45 on those Small Businesses. And the average Small Business owner spends over 12,000 annually just in dealing with regulations. So just for all of you, our are current tax policies h hindering Small Businesses and what would we like for women . I will just say there is no entrepreneur that would say no to taxes. I think thats men, women, no matter who we are. One thing i flagged that i dont think we brought up today, and i know there is a lot of discussion around child tax credits and so on. Something very specific when you put a gender on business is child care. I have a threeyearold and sixyearold, and i have to make very hard and strong decisions as an entrepreneur. That is my number one cost. I think anything we can do to release that burden for mothers, the majority of Women Entrepreneurs do have children, and theyre either doing childrens care, elderly care, or caring for their community. Its just a disproportionate thing about women. That is one area that i wanted to bring up in response, is we need to be thoughtful and creative about how do we let women be great moms but also be killer entrepreneurs . I love that. And that is something that we are having discussions about as well, because it is truly important, especially as we want to get more women involved in Small Businesses and other activities as well. So thank you. Anyone else . I think in terms of regulation, the really tough thing that i see is in the commerce space. So when companies are setting up and theyre trying to set up across the country, they have to register in each state separately. Which is a big hindrance for both male and female companies. Very good. Thank you. Of course, we want to relieve any pressure on our Small Businesses, and since women cash is a real consideration, its a real consideration with the taxes, too. Thank you. And today my colleagues, senator Heidi Heitkamp and i will be producing the act which seeks to improve Small Businesses and improve the quality of Agency Certifications and analysis of rules impact on Small Businesses. Do you think providing greater accountability for Agency Certifications would improve the rulemaking process and provide some regulatory relief for Small Businesses . Any thoughts on that . One thing i will say is were in a digital era, and one of the things that we can do is Digital Transformation around all of how do we regulate, how do we apply for everything from loans to our certification, even to our local permitting. One thing i would really encourage is how do we look at using digital for all these processes to speed things up because entrepreneurs are more time poor, even, than money poor most of the time, and also to lower those regulation barriers. I love the idea of having one registration instead of all 50 states. Yeah. Very important. Use technology. Yes. Anything else . With that ill yield back my time. Thank you. Thank you very much. Before i turn to senator coons, let me tell you, ms. Gore, the issue you raised that we hadnt touched on, i can assure you that matter is under serious consideration. As you know, over the last, what, few weeks weve been focused on tax reform, and like my colleagues, ive been to lots and lots of meetings, and i cant think of one where that issue wasnt seriously put on the table and discussed as to how that piece of the puzzle would fit in whats going to be a very complicated puzzle to put together. But it is seriously being discussed here. So thank you so much. Senator coons . Thank you, chairman rich, thank you to all of our wnt witnesses who testified about the range and ways we should strongly be supporting Women Entrepreneurs. It is striking, as graphically represented by senator shaheen on the chart, of the disconnect of the very Strong Performance of Women Entrepreneurs and womenowned businesses, and yet the significant structural challenges in accessing capital, in building out networks of mentors and advocates, and in particular, in accessing federal contracting. As a senator now for seven years and locally elected for a decade and before that in the local Business Community, ive been struck how strong and capable Women Entrepreneurs are in my home state. Fulcrum pharmacy, for example, christy cerniak founded this in wilmington, delaware. Its a specialty pharmacy. I commend her for taking the leap. Mountain consultants are in the state capital of dover. A very successful business doing land engineering and technical services. Kim is the founder of hub zone in delaware and also benefited for sba loan products. Twist juice, one of my favorites, is a premium juice bar in downtown hoe boboken bea probably frequented by many here who like to go to dover beaches, and if they dont, they should. They tell me they can do scoping to help develop the Business Plan and do research. Im the Ranking Member of the appropriations subcommittee that furn funds the sba, so im particularly interested in hearing from you about the sba funds for Womens Business Centers and mentoring through score and through sba offices and other programs. Let me just touch on those if i could. Ive worked to increase sbas wbc funding since 2015, and i think theyre a very Important Network across the country that helps address access to capital and mentoring and Business Planning. So i would be interested in hearing from all of you about what your views are about wbcs, whether theyre generally accessible, whether theyre relevant and whether theyre important in terms of a network, and then second, the networking that you spoke to, the need for mentorship. Score, i think, does a great job in delaware, but im not sure if thats the case nationally. In delaware there is an Innovative Program called we think, a partnership between score and the wsba office that provides yearlong mentoring for Women Entrepreneurs to tackle some of the challenges that may be specific to trying to balance family, commitment and obligations and new markets and being a successful entrepreneur. I would be interested in comments from all three of you, if i could, on those two core questions. Michelle . Yes. So two key pieces. One is that the mentoring is really critical. One of the things many of the Women Business centers do is use other women Business Owners, because there is a real clear connect between them. Thats a unique element of why you have a womens business center, too. Secondarily, the Womens Business Centers, because weve had a 30year cap, its not that its the same money, because 30 years ago it was different money. It was a different amount. And so were basically being squeezed to provide as Many Services in higher levels for the same dollars that were 30 years ago. And for the centers who are really excelling, this is an opportunity for us to push forth the same kind of programming to more women. Its an opportunity of growth for this country. I know the womens Business Development corporation in connecticut has been extremely successful in Building Community and mentorship and providing education for women. Where again i see the real lack is in capital. And i know the sba has been very successful in providing debt funding for women, and for some Small Businesses thats appropriate, and for some core businesses like Consumer Products that have capital and Balance Sheets that they can leverage against, thats appropriate. But for the Fastest Growing companies and the ones that are creating the most jobs in this country, really the most viable form of financing is he cequity. I dont know if there is some Equity Financing by the sba or is being contemplated, but i would highly recommend it because thats where the growth is. Thank you, senator, for the question because im an ardent believer in the sba. The first is where there are local sba offices, women really seem to have a connection and understand the sba more. So in sioux falls where i was on tuesday, the sba office was actually in the local accelerator, and people just understood it more, had better relationships, so i really think those local offices are quite powerful. The second is if i could improve the sba, weve got to streamline the process of application. Make it easier, make it faster and make it just like any other Silicon Valley startup. How do you use digital to make it more efficient . That would probably savor the sba money in the long term with more efficiencies. Most sba loans are 2. 5 lower for women than men, and i would love to dig into that and see why, because it is a critical source of capital for women. And the last is the sbas reputation. I really think the country could get a better understanding of the sb arksba and its value. Sometimes in new york and san fran, the sba is seen as your company is not going to thrive sometimes. As we can educate the masses on the power of the sba and how to use it, i think it will become even more powerful. Thank you, all. I realize im out of time, but i am particularly passionate also about trying to make sure were transparently reporting on whats happening, that were hitting the contracting cap and exceeding it, and that we continue to engage Community Involvement and Financial Institutions and cities of 5, one of the most effective wbc affiliates is in delaware. Theyre very engaged and well known. Thank you for the testimony. I look forward to following up with you. Thank you, senator coons. Senator kennedy. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Morning. Morning. I appreciate your testimony, all three of you. In terms of the gender bias and access to capital, you mentioned conscious and unconscious. Id like to ask each of you, what percentage roughly do you think is conscious and what percentage is unconscious . Since the astros won last night, sir, ill be a little bit more bullish. Thank you, senator, for the question. I actually think the majority this is personal opinion is unconscious. Im an optimist in this world, and i also have really spent time in the venture community, and i think theyre mostly good people. However, the formulas to make money have worked in the old system, and the systems have just not caught up to the amount of women who are now pitching. So i would say the majority is unconscious, and theres ways of training around that. There is a marked training thats incredible that catalyst does that i think, if everyone sat through it, we would see change. Thank you, senator. Ms. Chadwell . I think thats impossible to quantify. But i know that it exists. I think probably the Biggest Issue is networks and having access. Because people are comfortable doing business with people that they know, and some people will say, we wont even invest in someone that we dont already know. But i do know there was a study done by harvard and m. I. T. Together that had both a man and a woman present identical Business Plans, and the woman was 40 less likely to get funded, but thats with an identical Business Plan, so it does exist. I concur with your comments on there. I think that, again, we cant quantify. There isnt a way for us to quantify which is conscious and unconscious, but what ic think s critical is if we had mechanisms to count the behaviors in the lending community, it gives us an opportunity to create some policies around goals and performance that helps to change behaviors. And thats the best we could hope to have happen. Can you explain what you mean by that . Certainly. So if we had implemented 1071 dodd frank act and we collected a new definitively where only 4 of the loans were being given to women here, here and here, and we said this is not representative of the Business Community of the population at large, and it theoretically should be higher, as you have with federal government contracts, that at least 5 go to women. Then programs are in place to ensure policies come about to ensure that you at least meet these numbers. So what it does is it takes it away from the individuals personal conscience. I get it. I appreciate it. I want to follow up on senator shaheens excellent questions. The three of you are ive looked at your resumes. Youre obviously experienced, successful, accomplished, a lot of success in life. Have you ever witnessed sexual harrassment in the workplace . I not only have witnessed it, ive been a victim several times, and i made the decision to go forward in my work and become a role model rather than stop and take a sidetrack. But in some cases i regret that, because maybe perhaps if i had spoken up at the time, change could have happened more quickly. Either of you care to add to that . I would say the same. Ive seen it with other women and ive had experiences myself. Okay. I have seen it and not experienced it. But being there, everyone experiences it. Well, ms. Chadwell mentioned that it was in the entertainment industry. We just saw today that apparently a wellknown journalist, mr. Mark halperin, apparently is a pig as well. You know, five allegations that hes admitted to. Do you think thats related to the access to capital at all . I think that whenever you mix power with women and men, you have issues. And the i think the most effective way to do this is to have both women and men sitting at the table when making decisions about access to capital. All right. Thank you very much for your testimony. I learned a lot. I appreciate it. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, senator orono. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator kennedy, i can tell you without any reservation that sexual harrassment anymore is not limited to just the entertainment industry. Most women who have been doing anything in the workplace or otherwise, in school, et cetera, have faced these kinds of issues. I have been particularly interested in stem for women. This is a question for you, ms. Chadwell. Last fall i spoke at the innovation alliances event on closing the patent gender gap for finding the research for womens Research Found a number of women held patents in the u. S. While the number of women with patents has steadily grown since 2000, the current progress predicts that the patent holders will not occur until 5 years from now. You mentioned that a background of coding performing algorithms will have opportunities in the coming year. How do we include women in these and engineering and stem fields and assistance in obtaining patents . And the more specific you are as to what we can do, the better. First of all, i think there is some good news and bad news. The bad news is that the numbers are going down in terms of they jump out from the stem arena really early on, intermediate and beyond. Absolutely. I think this is back to messaging which we talked about earlier. Another thing i did mention is that with coding and algorithms becoming more commodities that we are going to be reaching into things that women are traditionally just have been in the past not as a total group, but some members are very effective at innovation and very effective at design and very effective at sales and marketing. So i think those could be places where women will have advantages. Also, too, in terms of patents, i like to say i dont back patentable technology anymore. What i like to back is innovation and the ability to it rate over and over and over again. By the time you get a patent with all this software, its already irrelevant. Really, what we need to continue to do is teach our children to be creative and innovate. What are some very specific ways, though, that we can teach children to be creative and innovati innovative . Are there any models out there where theres been success in encouraging more women and minorities to go into these fields and to stay in these fields . Youre nodding your head. Would you like to respond . Yes, senator. One of the things im very optimistic about is one of the wellestablished girls organizations. Im a 4h kid. Girls are already putting stems in their programs. I think its hard to create a whole new organization, so those that are already out there, including education having stem programs, but very early. Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh grade before that seventh grade drop happens is what i love. So you see there is now a stem badge for the girl scouts, which i love, and i think those are critically important. So lets get them into institutions that are already thriving and large and ensure that this is part of the vernacular. Well, okay, thats great. Not everybody gets to be a girl scout. I certainly wasnt. But im looking at arenas where the kids are there, i. E. , in our schools. What are we doing in our schools in terms of curriculum that supports minorities and women, girls going into these areas . Thank you. We have to have, first of all, we have to have wifi in our schools, we have to have broadband access, particularly in Rural Communities in smaller states. There is no good program thats out there if we dont have kids have access to what they need to see. Second is the technology in those arenas. Is there something children are touching, working on early on to learn to code, to learn to do these things. So i think that is the baseline, frankly, before we then can start looking into the best curriculums. Would the two of you agree that technology in our schools because there are a lot of Elementary Schools all across our country, public schools, that do not have access to this kind of technology. Would you agree that that is a really important foundational . Technology is critical. Mentors are also critical. They need to see women and minorities in those fields and as role models so that they can desire to achieve those goals. I did introduce a legislation that would encourage through grants, et cetera, mentorships and other programmatic ways, institutionalized ways focusing on women and minorities in the technology area, and i hope that you folks will take a look at that. And the whole question of particularly women can be considered a minority, but within that category, there are minority women who face even more challenges in terms of access to capital and all the other challenges that women generally face and multiplied probably several times over for minority women. So i would be appreciative of any information that you have that relate to support for minority. Thats no question. In fact, womens access to capital at the minority level is. 02 at the capital level. So its even more severe. Yes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. As we talk about getting young women excited about stem subjects, robot competitions and the sort of outofschool competitions that focus on stem is another really great way to do that, and it reaches not only young women but also often minorities in a way they wont be reached in school. But i want to follow up with both the mentor piece and the comment you made, ms. Chadwell, about the media not covering womens Success Stories. And what can we do to elevate those Success Stories for women, and how do we get reporters, actually, the media and the news media is another place where women are underrepresented. So how do we get attention to those female Success Stories of womenowned businesses for any of you . I think one of the biggest Success Stories were seeing right now is the story on the ipo of the company stitch fix, which has a female founder. Ironical ironically, for a technology company, this Company Actually has profits, which is wonderful. So the more we can elevate women into these positions where they can be role models and representing really terrific companies, i think the more attention well get from the media. Do either of you have the other panelists have any ideas . I have a very specific idea, and i think that the 12 Major Business publications that range from ink and fast company to fortune and forbes, they could collectively make a commitment publicly, and i encourage them on the record to do so, that at least 40 of their stories have some type of woman founder in them. That is a great idea. Theyre great stories, theyre good content, and then we as women have to do better at raising our hands and really boasting about those successes. But there is no longer the lack of great companies, which is really exciting, but i would encourage that level of commitment. Ms. Richards . I would agree with that and say we have to remember that we are the consumers, and part of that is we need to send the message of what we want to consume from our media and stop using it as being the one token female who has done this. Because theres many, many great stories. Well, thank you. That may be a place where the committee could weigh in. What do you think, senator rich, where we could send the suggestion on behalf of the hearing today to a number of those piublications. I think thats something to talk about. Thank you all very much. Thank you. We sit through lots and lots of hearings and lots and lots of panels, but i can tell you this was an impressive panel, and we sincerely appreciate you taking the time that youve taken to come and talk with us, and were every one of us runs for Public Office because we want to make life better for our constituents and americans, and these are the kinds of things that actually help us move forward in that goal. And actually, weve come away with some really good pragmatic suggestions that we can move forward, notwithstanding what you hear about what congress doesnt do. We do occasionally do some things. And we do it together. And we do it together, particularly on this committee. So with that first of all, formerly madam chairman, the chart that you had here. I think we ought to have that put in the record, would you agree . I agree. Thats a great idea. Secondly, im going to declare the record will be open for two weeks, until 5 00 p. M. On thursday, november 9 for anyone to submit any relevant information for the hearing. And again, thank you. And with that the committee is adjourned. President trump begins a trip to asia this week with stops in japan, south korea, china, vietnam and the philippines. In south korea hell visit with troops at Camp Humphreys and address the countrys national assembly. Hell attend the asia pacific Cooperation Committee in hanoi, vietnam, and later the association of Southeast Asia summit in the philippines. On his way to japan, hell stop in hawaii for a visit to pearl harbor and the u. S. S. Arizona memorial. On thursday, republicans in the house unveiled a proposal to overhaul the u. S. Tax system. Theyre expected to make the announcement at a press conference on capitol hill. Live at 11 15 a. M. Eastern here on cspan3. Senate democrats will respond to the republican plan to overhaul the tax system at a press conference on capitol hill. You can watch that live starting at 12 15 p. M. Eastern, also here on cspan3. Sunday night on q a, pulitzer prizewinning biographer and author sam hamilton and his new book on ulysses s. Grant. Hamilton was young and dashing. In a way he was the perfect leading man for a musical. You know, grants life moves through a very different kind of beat. He was plain and laconic, and the charisma of ulysses s. Grant was that he had no charisma. The drama was that he was not dramatic in different situations. Hes no less fascinating, but hes kind of a much more no less deep than hamilton but a very subtle character. In that respect he reminded me of george washington,