Diversity Woman Magazine

FALL 2015

Leadership and Executive Development for women of all races, cultures and backgrounds

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d i v e r s i t y w o m a n . c o m Fa l l 2 0 1 5 D I V E R S I T Y W O M A N 15 Young Entrepreneur: Reese Fernandez-Ruiz I n 2007, Reese Fernandez- Ruiz visited the Payatas com- munity in Manila. What the 22-year-old saw there—a seven- story tower of garbage, women and children swarming over it in search of usable materials to sell—both shocked and inspired her. Many of the women were making and sell- ing rugs woven from fabric scraps that middelmen had found at the dump, but the middlemen were taking most of the profts. Shortly following that visit, Fernandez-Ruiz cofounded Rags2riches, now a thriving for- proft social enterprise that became the women's business partner and helps them fnd markets for the products they create. Te com- pany works with factories to use materials that would otherwise go to waste and has partnered with top Filipino designers to create designs for its products. It directly employs 50 people and has trained more than 900 artisans. Te sty- lish handbags have been sold at Anthropologie and featured on Vogue.com. Fernandez-Ruiz studied man- agement at Ateneo University and credits her mother, a mis- sionary who worked in poor com- munities across the Philippines, with instilling her with a drive to help others. Her company's mission goes well beyond selling accessories: its key goal is to lift women—and, by extension, their children—out of poverty. The company teaches financial literacy, business, and values for- mation to the women who work with it. Fernandez-Ruiz says that hav- ing a "risk-taking and optimistic" nature has helped her navigate the challenges of social entre- preneurship. "Change that starts with a single individual," she says, "[can] change the world." Upfront > 1990s 2015 Percentage of Fortune 500 CEOs who are women 0% * 5.2% Percentage of Fortune 500 board members who are women 9.6% * 16.9% ** Percentage of Fortune 500 board members who are women of color Data unavailable 2.8% Percentage of law firm partners who are women 13.4% * 20.2% ** Number of businesses in U.S. owned by women 5.4 million *** 9 million ‡ Amount women earn on the dollar compared to men 72 cents 78 cents ** Gender Equality Empowering Artisans Versus W hen it comes to progress in the workplace, sometimes it seems like two steps forward, one step back. Or is it one step forward, two steps back? As these numbers show, women have made strides over the past two decades—but, clearly, not enough. * 1995 fgure ** 2013 fgure *** 1997 fgure ‡ 2014 fgure Next

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