Women empowered as entrepreneurs and consumers

December 10th – The “Mingle & Jingle: Women in Consumerism” event offered insights into how the role of women has changed over the years and how this role can be expected in the future.

The forum was held in the Ballroom of Northeastern State University and was hosted by the Tahlequah Region Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Tena Wooldridge was the guest presenter.

“This is important to me. I love you girls and I totally love to party with you guys. I’m not here to compete with you guys, I’m here to party with you guys and celebrate the fact that we are women in.” the economy, “said Angela Tinsley of Remax Select.

Tinsley said women bring the elements of elegance and class to the community.

“Thank you for doing what you do in our community and what you serve in our community, celebrating the fact that as women we don’t have to compete with one another in business,” she said.

Wooldridge said the evening will focus on women in general, as well as business owners and consumers, and why it matters.

“The consumer landscape has changed dramatically in the past 25 years, and that’s evident because technology has changed over the past 25 years,” said Wooldridge.

She stated that people are no longer consumers from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“I don’t have to plan my day, when the grocery store is open, when I can stop by and buy something. Now I can shop online 24 hours a day, seven days a week and that changes things for all of us, ”said

Wooldridge said since consumerism changed, it means corporate brands have changed too. She said advertisers tend to view women as a secondary group of people and that it is men who make purchasing decisions.

“Over the past two decades we’ve seen more women graduate. 58 percent of all graduates are women, and that number is not falling,” said Wooldridge.

The story goes on

Women as consumers want to know how spending decisions are made, and Wooldridge said it just depends – for a number of reasons.

“If you have a person in your household who is considered the main breadwinner, the decisions are pretty divided. The female makes a third of the decisions, the male makes a third of the decisions, and then together, they make another third of the decisions,” she said.

Wooldridge said that a woman outperforms her partner 40 percent of the time, and this is viewed as a big change over several decades.

“Eighty percent of all consumer purchases are influenced by a woman, and that is an amazing, amazing number,” she said.

Women are more likely to receive confirmations and seek reviews from other consumers than from advertisers.

“Women-owned companies – they have more people of color, they pay higher wages than any other national brand. When you are a female owned business, you, along with other female owned businesses, have a responsibility to fill the gap between wealth and equity. all marginalized populations, “she said.

Wooldridge said in order to know where to go women need to know where they have been and she has shown a number of advertisements over the century. Most of these advertisements showed women as objects in submission to their husbands. Those blurbs showed women as sex objects to attract more consumers, and Wooldridge said it hadn’t gotten better.

“The wonderful thing about where we are now is that brands are being scrutinized,” she said. “If you go through these kinds of blows now, people will start bringing you to your attention, and women will start sticking together.”