“From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed…” President Jimmy Carter
This is a quote from President Jimmy Carter, the day he declared to the nation that March 2-8, 1980 was National Women’s History Week. National Women’s History Month started out as one week in 1978 by a group of educators in Sonoma County, California. Their message of celebrating women gained traction, being declared as National Women’s History Week by President Carter in 1980. It was later declared as National Women’s History Month in March of 1987.
For women across every race and socioeconomic status, this was a well-deserved step in the right direction. Women were starting to be seen, heard and respected. A 2014 NAS study and a 2017 Harvard study both show that we still have some work to do to conquer our gender-related biases, however. While we still have a ways to go as a nation to bridge this equality gap, this month has been an important marker for us all to celebrate how far we’ve come.
Things are changing for women in business…
Since we at Bold Entity are a woman-owned Texas company, we can’t help but celebrate the fact that, as of January of 2019, Texas is the number one State for women entrepreneurs. In a State that is historically seen as a male-dominated cowboy terrain, we’d say this is a win. In the United States as a whole, more than 11.6 million firms are owned by women.
According to Guidant Financial, the health and beauty industry is the top small business industry for women. There’s no surprise there because us women have a keen sense of what is beautiful. 😉
NTD Mechanical Contractors is a certified woman-owned business founded by Carmen Smith. Originally from Wisconsin, Carmen is from a blue collar home. Her father and uncle worked together in the union as process pipe fitters. They woke up before the sun, worked all day, and then came home after dark. Their commitment, hard work and love for their coworkers is what she says inspires her today. 
She also learned the value of hard work when she worked as a paper girl at age 11. The lessons she learned as a paper girl she says have helped her to run her own business today.
“Get the job done and be responsible to the people that are relying on you…” Carmen said. That’s what motivated her as a young girl on her paper route and that is what motivates her today with NTD Mechanical.
Today Carmen Smith has over 30 years of HVAC construction industry experience. Her company NTD Mechanical was established in May of 2001 and has won numerous awards. They started out small and have now grown into a world-class mechanical contractor focusing on HVAC, plumbing and piping.
Association Insurance Management is an insurance company that helps protect PTAs, PTOs and Booster Clubs and a woman named Jamie Fagan is the President of this company. She leads the daily operations at AIM, including growth strategy and seeking new ways to better serve our insureds.
Within the first few minutes of meeting Jamie, it is apparent that she is passionate about helping people. She works closely with her father Elgin B. Allen Jr., the Founder and CEO of AIM. Together they work with their team to make sure AIM does their best to help people. Their vision is to be the largest protector of good people doing good things. They are well on their way as they are currently insuring over 22,000 groups across all 50 states!
Kim Hutchings is the President and CEO of Volo Mission, one of the world’s leading helicopter training facilities located in the DFW area. Her company is recognized amongst the best helicopter training schools around the world. 
Volo Mission trains for very specialized missions in the helicopter industry called Vertical reference/long line operations. They are among the most difficult and hazardous flight movements within the helicopter industry.
“Since I was a little girl I have always been interested in being a pilot. I went to school to study psychology and later ended up getting my pilot’s license, which then got me involved in aviation,” Hutchings said.
With her formal education in Psychology, Aeronautical Science, and Management, she is an expert in Safety Culture and Communication for High Risk Operations, helping teams to protect their people. Pilots from all over the world come to Texas to be trained by her with her company Volo Mission.
Catalyze Dallas is a venture development firm specializing in capitalization and commercialization of innovations from defense and industrial companies. Tricia D’Cruz is their Managing Director.
With her degree in software engineering from Texas A&M, she moved into management at Texas Instruments and then into developing a successful startup early in her career. She has been a leader to growing high technology companies for over 30 years
As Managing Director of Catalyze Dallas, Tricia was integral in the launch of Catalyze Dallas’ second company, Alpine Advanced Materials. Founded in 2018, Alpine is a platform company specializing in best-in-class lightweight and affordable structural thermoplastic nanocomposites, initially commercializing intellectual property sourced from Lockheed Martin.
Tricia is inspirational in the way she leads as well as in her passion for growing companies.
Established for women by women, EWF International bring together women CEOs, women executives, and women-owned business leaders to meet real-world challenges. Tanis Cornell, CEO of EWF International, and Jennifer Carter, President of EWF International, are two women who are on a mission to equip and empower women to succeed.
EWF was founded in 1998 with a focus on training and consulting. It now includes an Emerging Leaders Program and women business forums all to help with leadership development and other resources needed for women in business.
As a company, their goal is to increase the gender diversity in senior leadership and business ownership, as these positions are mostly male-dominated. And thanks to women like them, women in these roles are beginning to increase.
To finish off Jimmy Carter’s quote…
“… the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well.”
Thank you to all the women out there leading the way and thank you to all the men who champion us along.
