The new girls' club

As opposed to the old boys' club, of course.

Back when I was doing the networking group rounds (visiting with no intention of joining, just to hand out business cards), I ran into another woman doing the rounds, a business coach by the name of Jan Hinton. Though Jan owns her coaching company, Stone Soup Coaching, she was at the meeting to promote the professional association for which she was the president.

That bit of serendipity was how I first encountered the National Association of Women Business Owners, the only dues-based professional organization just for women business owners. My first meeting was like a breath of fresh air; I'm really not a man-basher but women and men just do business differently. At the time, I was in a Greensboro Merchants Association networking group which was great and filled with great people, but I always felt as though I had to conform to their idea of a business person and their idea of success. Well, my idea of a business person includes jeans and unmatched earrings and my idea of success has nothing to do with creating a franchise or having a hundred employees or anything like that - I've always just wanted to do what I want to do and make enough money to live comfortably and eat gourmet cheese.

Not even a year after I joined NAWBO, I was invited to sit on the board as secretary. I'll admit that I spent my entire year as board secretary feeling in over my head; I was surrounded by forward-thinking, experienced, successful (by whatever definition) women and all I felt qualified to do was sit quietly, take notes and hope to learn something.

Though most of the board remained in place for another year, I stepped down from my position, thinking another women could add more to the board. That was a month ago. Last week, I got another call from the nearly irresistible president, Tara Olson, saying that they had created a new position, vice president of administrative services, and hoped I would rejoin the board in that role.

After a week of agonizing over it, Rob finally said, "You know you want it. Just take it." And I did.

Friday, I attended the second half of the board retreat (it was during the first half that they created the position). Nine women were in attendance, covering industries from financial services to PR and marketing research to coaching. It was inspiring to be a part of the brainstorming as we began coaxing our four-year-old chapter through adolescence.

I often think about the state of feminism, how far we have come in the last 50 years and how easy it is to become complacent with what we have achieved. We own businesses; we are in boardrooms; we can do anything. It's organizations like NAWBO that continue to nudge feminism along by showing society that we're not token business women; we're a force to be reckoned with.

Like Slow Food, NAWBO seeks social change though positive action. This past fall, we held our first ever symposium to which all business people were invited though the presenters were all women. This October, we will also hold our first ever Girls Going Places workshop in conjunction with Guardian Life. One hundred high school girls will have the opportunity to learn the basics of being a business women: how to innovate, how to write a business plan, how to manage finances.

The women of NAWBO are going to turn the conventional ideas of business on their head, to the benefit of everyone. Just wait and see...