Sisterhood
Empowering
women.
The belief that women can be anything they want to be, when provided with equal opportunities, has never left me and for more than 20 years I’ve supported groups dedicated to empowering women.
In 2015, I started the World Women Charitable Trust with my friends Barbara Gabler and Chris Woodwiss and, along with Lindy Nelson, we hosted WorldWomen17, a summit bringing inspiring women from around the world to New Zealand. As WorldWomen we want to inspire women to manifest amazing outcomes and to create meaningful change in the world.
From 2016 to 2020 I was Chair of Co.OfWomen, a community, support and learning organisation exclusively for women entrepreneurs.
In 2019 I became the founding sponsor of the Laureate Award for a senior female practitioner at the Arts Foundation Laureate Awards.
In 2020 I was appointed to the board of Global Women and in 2021 appointed Chair, sharing their purpose of increasing diversity in leadership in Aotearoa New Zealand through promoting, encouraging and facilitating the development of women.
Internationally, I am on the International Board of World Pulse, an independent, women-led, global social network for social change using the power of technology to grow women’s leadership across the globe and I’m Patron of the Cambodia Charitable Trust founded by Denise Arnold. The Trust began by establishing primary school education sponsorship for girls in the two poorest provinces in Cambodia. This programme grew to include support for secondary school education and university study and now operates throughout Cambodia. I also personally support many girls in Cambodia through their education.
I also support Sister Zeph at the Zephaniah Women’s Education and Empowerment Foundation and Tree Sisters.
Theresa with Chourn Vichet, one of the students she supports through the Cambodia Charitable Trust.
In 2016 I was invited to become a member of the National Advisory Board on the Employment of Women. The Board advises the Minister on matters concerning the employment of women.
Comprehensive pay equity legislation is an issue of our times. I believe if New Zealand does a good job with pay equity legislation then we could lead the world in the way that we did with suffrage. If all women who have a voice get in behind this, we can make this happen.
I’ve always been a feminist, and strongly believe that women should support other women. I hope to be a catalyst, inspiring women to manifest amazing outcomes for themselves and create meaningful change in the world in the company of other women.
Bringing Coralus to New Zealand was one way I hoped to achieve that.
Coralus is a global community of women transforming the way we finance, support, and celebrate female entrepreneurs who are creating a better world.
When I first heard about Coralus I went looking for statistics on the percentage of venture capital funding that goes to women. I quickly found the US studies which show that it’s only four percent. I looked in vain for any New Zealand data. There was none.
Coralus operates on the principal of radical generosity. Every year a group of several hundred women, called activators, each contribute $1,100 to a central funding pool. These women then work together to choose five female-led ventures to fund with five-year interest-free loans.
After 5 years as New Zealand Lead, Coralus reached the initial goal I set out to achieve and a $1.3m perpetual fund in New Zealand has been established, which has been loaned to local ventures over five cycles of funding. These ventures are some of the most innovative businesses in the world right now. Each is working on the world’s to-do-list – the 17 sustainable development goals issued by the United Nations.
I’ve invested in two of the Ventures myself. Beany is small business accounting online. The Better Packaging Co. develop the world’s most sustainable packaging solutions. I’m excited to support this generation of female entrepreneurs doing things their way.
Theresa with Vicki Saunders, founder of Coralus formerly SheEO, at the Coralus summit.
Words of wisdom at worldwomen17
Theresa Gattung chats to Tara Lorigan, Founder and CEO of
Co.OfWomen at the worldwomen17 conference in Auckland.
Published: November 22, 2016 Credit: World Women