Her Story Edition 18: President Jimmy Carter's Enduring Legacy for Women's Rights
The sky has no limit - a celebration of the late President Jimmy Carter's enduring legacy for women's rights.
Hello, Denyse here, and a very warm welcome to We Are Mimosa, a place for women building brands which are aligned with their purpose and values, and who care about making the world a better place.
"My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference."
Watching Jimmy Carter's funeral last week, I found myself reflecting on how profoundly this simple statement shaped his approach to women's rights. While many know Carter as the 39th U.S. president or for his humanitarian work, his persistent focus on systemic barriers facing women offers particular resonance for our work supporting female founders and closing the gender gap in entrepreneurship.
The timing feels significant. In 2015, just months after I'd finished reading "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" while traveling in India, Carter gave his landmark TEDWomen talk declaring the abuse of women and girls "the number one human rights violation on Earth." While "Half the Sky" had opened my eyes to the global scale of gender-based oppression, Carter's subsequent book "A Call to Action" revealed how these same systemic patterns manifest even in supposedly progressive societies.
What struck me, watching tributes to his century of service, was how clearly Carter understood the connection between individual stories and systemic change. Like the authors of "Half the Sky," he recognised that women's advancement isn't just about individual empowerment – it requires addressing the structural barriers that hold women back across all sectors of society.
This understanding feels particularly relevant as we support female founders building significant businesses. When Carter spoke about religious texts being misinterpreted to justify the subordination of women, he wasn't just talking about explicit discrimination. He was highlighting how deeply embedded assumptions about women's capabilities and proper roles continue to shape everything from access to capital to expectations about business growth.
I'm reminded of a conversation I had in India shortly after finishing "Half the Sky." A local entrepreneur explained how she had to navigate both explicit barriers (like limited access to business loans) and implicit ones (like being seen as "too ambitious" when she talked to me about her expansion plans). These same patterns, though perhaps more subtle, still affect women building businesses in the West.
Carter's work helps us understand why addressing these barriers requires both individual support and systemic change. It's not enough to tell women to "lean in" or "work on their mindset" when the structures around us are designed to limit our progress. That’s why here at We Are Mimosa, we focus on creating ‘protected spaces’ where women can build significant businesses while simultaneously working to challenge the systemic barriers that make such spaces necessary.
Hope in Action: From Analysis to Impact
If you’ve not watched it before, Carter's 2015 TEDWomen talk remains strikingly relevant today. When he argued that "in general, men don't give a damn" about systemic discrimination, he wasn't just being provocative. He was highlighting how privilege often operates through quiet acceptance rather than active malice. It's a pattern I've seen repeatedly in my work with female founders, where the barriers to building significant businesses aren't always obvious discrimination but rather what Mary Ann Sieghart calls "the authority gap" – that persistent underestimation of women's competence that shapes everything from lack of financial investment to media coverage.
What makes Carter's analysis particularly powerful is how he connected individual stories to broader patterns. Like the book "Half the Sky," which showed how personal narratives could illuminate systemic issues, Carter used specific examples to demonstrate how discrimination operates at multiple levels. Whether he was discussing pay inequality in corporate America or the misinterpretation of religious texts, he showed how individual experiences of limitation often reflect deeper structural barriers.
This multi-level understanding is crucial for our work supporting female founders. When women come to us feeling stuck at the £50k revenue mark, it's rarely just about business strategy. Often, they're navigating what Dr. Amy Diehl identifies as complex barriers – from disproportionate constraints on their time to the subtle devaluation of their expertise. As one founder recently told me, "It's not that anyone explicitly says I can't scale my business... they just keep reinforcing the narrative that women build ‘lifestyle businesses instead."
Carter's advocacy for the "Swedish Model" in addressing exploitation offers an interesting parallel for our work. Just as Sweden recognised that meaningful change required shifting focus from individual behaviour to systemic solutions, we've found that supporting female founders effectively means creating protected spaces where realising our aspirations becomes possible. It's not about "fixing" women to fit into broken systems – it's about building new approaches that honour our desire to build something both significant and authentic.
This is where Carter's legacy offers particular inspiration for female founders today. His willingness to challenge power structures – even leaving his church over their treatment of women – demonstrates how taking a principled stand can create ripple effects of change. When women build significant businesses that command respect through their excellence and create impact through their purpose, they're not just achieving personal success – they're creating proof points that challenge limiting assumptions about what's possible.
Perhaps most importantly, Carter's work reminds us that hope isn't naive optimism but rather a strategic necessity. As he often said, making change requires doing "whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can." For female founders, this might mean both building their own significant businesses and supporting other women's journeys. It's about creating collective power while maintaining individual agency.
At We Are Mimosa, we're seeing this strategic hope in action. Women who've broken through the £50k ceiling aren't just scaling their own businesses – they're demonstrating what's possible when female founders receive sophisticated, substantial support. Like the women profiled in "Half the Sky" who transformed personal challenges into opportunities for broader change, the founders we work with are creating new narratives about women's capabilities in business.
Breaking Through Glass Ceilings: Carter's Legacy of Firsts
You know those moments when someone doesn't just open a door but removes it entirely from its hinges? That's essentially what Jimmy Carter did for women in government. While we often focus on his post-presidency humanitarian work, his presidential appointments fundamentally changed what was possible for women in public service. We talk about "breaking glass ceilings" as if they're individual achievements, but Carter showed how systematic change requires institutional commitment. He didn't just appoint a few token women to positions of power and influence – he transformed the federal judiciary and executive branch of government.
Here are three achievements that particularly resonate with me:
Transforming the Judiciary: Carter appointed 41 women to the federal judiciary – more than all previous presidents combined. Among these was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (often called the second-highest court in the land) paved her way to becoming a Supreme Court Justice. When you consider that before Carter, only eight women had ever served as Article III judges in the entire history of the United States, you begin to appreciate the scale of this change.
Cabinet-Level Leadership: He appointed Patricia Roberts Harris as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, making her the first Black woman to serve in a presidential cabinet. When critics questioned whether she could understand the needs of the poor, she famously responded: "You do not seem to understand who I am. I am a Black woman, the daughter of a dining car waiter... I am one of them." Harris later became the first woman to hold two different cabinet positions when Carter named her Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Institutionalising the First Lady's Role: In what might seem like a smaller change but had lasting implications, Carter and his wife Rosalynn created the first permanent Office of the First Lady in the East Wing. This formally recognised the policy work many First Ladies had long done unofficially, setting a precedent for treating women's leadership roles with appropriate seriousness.
Building Something Significant: Carter's Legacy in Action
Working in my allotment last weekend, I found myself thinking about Carter's understanding of systemic change. Like cultivating a garden, transforming how women build businesses requires both immediate action and long-term vision. You need to address today's challenges while creating the conditions for future growth.
This reminds me of a conversation I had recently with a founder who'd just broken through the £1 million revenue barrier. "The interesting thing," she said, "isn't just that I'm making more money – it's that other women in my network now see what's possible." She'd unknowingly echoed one of Carter's key insights. Individual success creates ripples and waves that challenge systemic limitations.
What makes Carter's legacy particularly relevant for our work at We Are Mimosa is his sophisticated understanding of how change happens. He recognised, as we do, that transformation requires working at multiple levels simultaneously:
Creating Protected Space: Just as Carter advocated for structural solutions through policy change, we're building environments where women can develop their businesses without constantly fighting to be seen and valued. As one founder put it recently - making me smile with her gardening metaphor - "It's like having a greenhouse – you still have to do the work, but at least you're not constantly battling the elements."
Challenging Narratives: Carter wasn't afraid to question religious interpretations that limited women's roles. Similarly, we're challenging the "lifestyle business" narrative that often constrains women's ambitions. Because let's be honest – no one ever suggests to male founders that maybe they should focus on "work-life balance" instead of scaling their business.
Building Collective Power: One of my favorite insights from "Half the Sky" is how women's advancement accelerates when they support each other. We see this daily in our community – when one woman builds a significant business, she creates a pathway that others can follow.
The practical implications for female founders are clear:
Understand Barriers as Systemic: When you're struggling to scale past £50k, it's not because you're "not trying hard enough" or "lack confidence." Like Carter, recognise these challenges as structural rather than personal.
Create Strategic Responses: Use this understanding to develop thoughtful approaches to growth. One founder I work with deliberately sought out female investors who understood her vision – not just for funding, but to build allies who recognised her business's potential.
Build Sustainable Change: Focus on creating businesses that command respect through the excellence of your brand strategy while staying true to your values. As Carter showed throughout his life, principled stands create lasting impact.
Looking ahead to 2025, I'm reminded of another quote from Carter that particularly resonates: "We can choose to be a nation that not only accepts but celebrates our differences while working to ensure that everyone has an equal chance to achieve their dreams."
Replace "nation" with "business community" and you have our vision at We Are Mimosa. We're creating spaces where women can build significant businesses not by conforming to existing limitations, but by demonstrating what's possible when talent meets opportunity.
If you're ready to be part of this transformation, to build something significant while contributing to systemic change, let's talk. Book a discovery call here.
What's Inspiring Me This Week
Jimmy Carter's TEDWomen Talk (2015) continues to resonate deeply. I've been struck by how his analysis of systemic barriers remains painfully relevant today. There's something both sobering and energising about watching him declare the abuse of women and girls "the number one human rights violation on Earth." What particularly moves me is his willingness to challenge his own privilege – that moment when he admits that men, himself included, have quietly benefited from these systems. It reminds me of conversations I've had with male allies in business who've had similar awakenings. The full talk is available here, and trust me, it's worth setting aside 15 minutes to watch.
"A Call to Action" by Jimmy Carter has been my bedtime reading this week. While the book addresses serious issues (warning: some sections are genuinely difficult to read), what strikes me is Carter's fundamental optimism about the possibility of change. He doesn't just catalogue problems – he offers concrete examples of successful interventions. I was particularly drawn to his discussion of how economic empowerment intersects with other forms of autonomy. For those interested in understanding how systemic barriers operate and can be overcome, his book offers invaluable insights.
"Half the Sky" by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn feels particularly relevant to revisit alongside Carter's work. I remember reading this in India (trying not to spill my chai while I frantically highlighted passages on the bumpy train journey), and being struck by how personal stories could illuminate systemic patterns. The book's central metaphor – that women hold up half the sky – takes on new resonance when paired with Carter's analysis. Together, they remind us that supporting women isn't just about individual empowerment but about recognising and unleashing collective potential. As someone working with female founders, I'm constantly seeing how business success creates ripple effects far beyond individual achievement.
Over to You
How do you see the connection between individual business success and broader systemic change? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
If this resonated with you, please take a moment to "❤️" and share this post. Your story matters, and sharing it helps build the supportive community we all need.
Until next time,
Denyse
About Strategic Hope: Research shows that understanding challenges as systemic rather than personal enables women to maintain their ambition even while facing significant obstacles. This "attribution shift," studied by organizational behavior researchers, helps explain why creating protected spaces for transformation can be more effective than focusing solely on individual empowerment.
About Me
If you’re new to my work, it might be helpful if I explain who I am and what I do!
I’m Denyse Whillier, a former Chief Executive with more than 25 years of business experience under my favourite Sézane belt. I upcycle my skills and experience to provide business mentoring and strategic support, reimagined for female founded businesses.
My mission is simple. It’s to make it easier for women to build thriving brands which are aligned with their purpose and values and to close the gender gap in entrepreneurship, one female founder at a time.
To find out how I can support you on your business journey, check out this link. And if you’d like to know more about the results my clients get, here are some of my case studies.
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