Women’s Business, Ilene Kantrov

                                   Women’s Business

Summary

    The essay, ’Women's Business’ was written by an American writer, Ilene Kantrov. In this essay the write portrays a picture of a pioneering business women of America, Lydia e. Pinkham and describes several other business women of the following century who tried to follow the footsteps of Pinkham.

         Lydia E. Pinkham was the pioneer business woman of America who produced a herbal medicine, Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound and advertised it in a newspaper in 1879. She claimed her product to be the greatest remedy in the world for all types of female weakness. She used her image as a kind woman to promote her business. She tried to introduce social activism into her marketing efforts. She claimed that she was offering something more to her customers and the society besides her product. She also claimed to support Women’s Rights, fiscal reform and temperance. Along with her product, she offered her customers some suggestions on diet, exercised and hygiene because of her bold marketing strategy and social activism, she was able to establish herself as a model in the world of American business.

    The business women of the following century tried to follow the footsteps of Pinkham in many ways though they departed away from her model in some respects. The business women like Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden promoted their business of cosmetics, hair styling and ready made clothes using the image of Glamorous socialite. Two other business women, Margret Rudkin and Jennie Grossinger ran an incorporation and a resort hotel. Jennie Grossinger used her image as a grandmother to prosper her business of resort hotel. Another business women, Gertrude Muller invented ‘toidey seat’ besides writing booklets on the progressive philosophy of child rearing. The last business woman included in the essay was Annie Turnbo Malone, who established ‘poro’ college of hair styling. She also claimed to uplift the economic condition of the black women.

   All the business woman after Pinkham tried to carry on their business and social service side by side, but they were not as successful as their model. The business of all of these business women grew out of their traditional skill and catered to the needs of women. They understood the taste of women and went on producing the goods to match their taste. Some of the business women like Turnbo Malone, Helena Rubinstein and Jennie Grossinger were both philanthropists as well as business executives. The advertising claims of some of these business women were extravagant, even misleading. Some of these business women, though they claimed to be social activist, were found practicing their business against the social service ethics. For eg:- Lydia E. Pinkham who supported temperance, was selling a product containing high level of Alcohol. Another business woman Jennie Grossinger, was also against the sale of alcohols was selling alcohol in her hotel.

Thesis of Essay

   The thesis of the essay is to focus on the success of American business women who adopted innovative business strategy and established themselves in respectable position in the business field as well as in the society. The business women were also involved in social work for uplifting the society. However, their aim was to promote their own business on the pretext on social service for the sake of their business, they activated the society, earned money and upgraded their own position in the society.

     The women entrepreneurs discussed in this essay were different in many ways from their counterparts. The women were involved in earning money along with social service for upgrading their own position. Adopting the cleverest marketing techniques by rendering practical advice. On various advice's they activated the women of the society. They were not only involved in selling their products but also played an important role for the benefit of the society. They cleverly utilized their image of being women to upgrade their business. They were extremely sex consciousness which they revealed by serving the female only. Lydia advised her customer to bypass the male physician. Adopting new business skill the female entrepreneurs were able to introduce feminine's role in the male dominated world of commerce in America.

The Business women were similar to their counterparts in matters of obeying the law of the state besides their claim about their produces through misleading and lavish advertisement.