Honoring President Jimmy Carter and His Advocacy for Women-owned Businesses

By Laurie Dowling, National Utilities Diversity Council   

A National Day of Mourning for our nation’s 39^th President, Jimmy Carter was held January 9, 2025.. I wasn’t old enough to vote in the 1976 election, but it is the first one that I remember following closely. To my younger self, Jimmy Carter was close to the age of my dad, and he also had a young daughter. And he welcomed school groups to attend his inauguration, including a group of some of my friends. For kids from North Carolina to see a presidential inauguration was amazing then and still seems kind of fantastic now.

I’ve seen a lot of wonderful citations of President’s Carter’s great work in the White House and afterward – his concern about the environment, his efforts toward Middle East peace, the amazing work that he and Mrs. Carter did with the Carter Center. But to my mind, there’s one thing that hasn’t been sufficiently highlighted – his support of women business owners.

On May 18, 1979 President Carter signed Executive Order 12138 creating a national policy encouraging women owned businesses, which led to the creation of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership. 

Executive Order 12138–Creating a National Women’s Business Enterprise Policy and prescribing arrangements for developing, coordinating and implementing a national program for women’s business enterprise.

In response to the findings of the Interagency Task Force on Women Business Owners and congressional findings that recognize:

1. the significant role which small business and women entrepreneurs can play in promoting full employment and balanced growth in our economy;

2. the many obstacles facing women entrepreneurs; and

3. the need to aid and stimulate women’s business enterprise;

By the authority vested in me as President of the United States of America, in order to create a National Women’s Business Enterprise Policy and to prescribe arrangements for developing, coordinating and implementing a national program for women’s business enterprise, it is ordered as follows:

1-1. Responsibilities of the Federal Departments and Agencies.

1-101. Within the constraints of statutory authority and as otherwise permitted by law:

(a) Each department and agency of the Executive Branch shall take appropriate action to facilitate, preserve and strengthen women’s business enterprise and to ensure full participation by women in the free enterprise system.

(b) Each department and agency shall take affirmative action in support of women’s business enterprise in appropriate programs and activities including but not limited to:

(1) management, technical, financial, and procurement assistance,

(2) business-related education, training, counselling and information dissemination, and

(3) procurement.

(c) Each department or agency empowered to extend Federal financial assistance to any program or activity shall issue regulations requiring the recipient of such assistance to take appropriate affirmative action in support of women’s business enterprise and to prohibit actions or policies which discriminate against women’s business enterprise on the ground of sex…

According to our friends at the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), there are over 14 million women owned enterprises in the U.S. – over 39% of all businesses. In 1979, that number was 2.1 million. 

Of course, President Carter wasn’t responsible for the tremendous growth of WBEs in our nation – it was the hard work, expertise, and energy of the women entrepreneurs. But he and his administration created an environment, and a federal policy, that helped us grow and thrive. And to become the powerful asset to our nation’s economy that we are today. As someone who worked for a Women’s Business Center and who has had her own business, I am very grateful for his leadership.

So today, in addition to remembering President Carter for all the other accomplishments highlighted by his friends, family, our national leaders, and the media, I hope you will join me in remembering him as a champion of opportunity for women across the nation. Thank you, President Carter.

Read more articles for the Women Community here.

This article was originally published on diversitycomm.net.