Confessions of a “Woman-Owned Business” Owner: How I Learned to Love Quotas. (Reason Online, Print Edition, July, 2004)
Summary: Woman business owner, Tama Starr, provides an opinionated narrative account of her experience in obtaining the state Woman-Owned Business certificate and discusses the benefits in the 2004 print edition of Reason magazine.
Topic: Should the new administration offer incentives for investing in women-owned businesses?
Category: Journalistic Publication funded by the non-profit organization, The Reason Foundation
What is it? An online journal article
Title: Confessions of a “Woman-Owned Business” Owner: How I Learned to Love Quotas.
Publication Information: Reason Online, Print Edition, July, 2004
Author: Starr, Tama
Location: http://www.reason.com/news/show/29203.html
Accessed: February 9th, 2009. 17:50 PST
Support:
Tama Starr- Businesswoman and author. She is President of Artkraft Strauss, the largest outdoor advertising company in the Eastern U.S. She is also a satirist and social commentator with her work appearing in the Washington Post, Reader’s Digest and Reason magazines.
The New York State Division of Human Rights- A New York State agency created to enforce the state’s Human Rights Law. This agency issued Tama Starr her documentation certifying her company as a woman-owned business.
U.S. Census Bureau’s 1997 Economic Census- The Economic Census profiles the US economy every 5 years, from the national to the local level. The author uses this data to demonstrate how quickly minority-and women-owned businesses are growing.
Audience and Agenda: Reason is the monthly print magazine of “free minds and free markets.” It covers politics, culture, and ideas through a provocative mix of news, analysis, commentary, and reviews. According to Quantcast.com , Reason Online is visited by an average of 316,000 viewers monthly. 76% of these viewers do not have kids. Reason and Reason Online are editorially independent publications of the Reason Foundation, a national, non-profit research and educational organization. Reason Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization completely supported by voluntary contributions from individuals, foundations, corporations, and the sale of our publications. Reason magazine features opinion journals which are distinguished by logical argument based on the experience of professionals in the business world.
Usefulness: The account that Starr provides gives insight into the nature in which women business owners are assisted and recognized in the U.S. She explains that she had restrained from obtaining the WOB (Woman Owned Business) certificate because she was too proud to accept the benefits which she refers to as “charity.” Starr explains how becoming a certified WOB enabled her to access many additional employer contracts because construction consultants are required to spend 1/5th of construction money on WOBs or MBEs (minority owned enterprises). The narrative would be useful and informative to anyone who works for a WOB or MBE that is not certified to receive benefits. The article provides valuable information about being a female who owns a business and how being aware of the potential advantages is important for success.
Works Cited:
http://www.reason.org/aboutreason.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tama_Starr
http://www.dhr.state.ny.us/mission.html
http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/econ97.html
http://www.quantcast.com/reason.com
http://www.reason.com/Reason_Ads.pdf
Filed under: Journalistic Sources, Source Notes Tagged: | Reason Foundation, women-owned businesses
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