Never Underestimate the Power of a Woman

Christine Many
(copyright) 2000, LADIES' HOME JOURNAL
Published: April 2000
Section: NEWS SECTION

Women helping women: Nell Merlino (left) and Iris Burnett are founders of a new program to help put women in business.

If you think $5 doesn't go very far, you haven't talked to Nell Merlino or Iris Burnett. They're asking women to contribute at least that much to Count Me In, a nonprofit organization designed to strengthen women's position in the economy. The money will be redistributed to women in the form of small business loans-$500 to $10,000-or scholarship grants of $1,000.

Merlino, 46, who created Take Our Daughters to Work Day, and Burnett, 53, a former chief of staff at the United States Information Agency, came up with the idea after attending a White House women's economic summit in 1997. "Everybody talks about women's power as consumers, but there are more than nine million women-owned businesses employing twenty-seven million people [in the U.S.]," says Merlino. "There's no sense of the magnitude of that. We wanted to show the impact women could have."

The pair hope to raise as much as $25 million. The loans will be available later this year; women who want to start or expand their own businesses can apply. Scholarship grants will be open to those who want to improve their business skills.

Burnett believes Count Me In will show financial institutions that women are smart investments. "If they see women as a good risk, it will change the way people look at women," she says. "And it will change the way women look at themselves."