10,000 Women

10,000 Women
source
Name	10,000 Women
Formation	2008
Founder	Goldman Sachs
Type	Non-profit initiative
Headquarters	New York City
Area served	Global
Parent organization	Goldman Sachs

10,000 Women

10,000 Women is an international initiative launched to expand access to entrepreneurship training, business education, and mentoring for women entrepreneurs worldwide. The program connects participants with corporate partners, academic institutions, development agencies, and philanthropic organizations to provide practical skills, capital connections, and networks. It operates through a combination of executive education, mentorship, and access to finance delivered by partnerships with universities, nonprofit organizations, and multinational firms.

Introduction

The initiative was created by Goldman Sachs in 2008 to foster growth among women-owned small and medium enterprises by linking them to resources from institutions like Harvard Business School, INSEAD, Columbia Business School, London Business School, and IE Business School. Early public supporters included figures from United Nations agencies such as UN Women and the World Bank, while civil society actors like Oxfam and CARE International engaged in complementary efforts. Major corporate collaborators included McKinsey & Company, PwC, KPMG, and Deloitte, while philanthropic partners included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Ford Foundation.

History and Development

The program was announced in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis amid renewed emphasis on private-sector development and corporate philanthropy alongside institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Initial rollout took place in countries across regions represented by institutions like the Inter-American Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, and African Development Bank. Over successive phases, the initiative expanded curricula using case studies from Harvard Kennedy School, executive coaching models aligned with practices from McKinsey Global Institute, and monitoring approaches similar to those used by the World Economic Forum. Regional hubs were established in cities such as Nairobi, Mumbai, São Paulo, London, and Beijing.

Program Structure and Activities

Core activities include executive education modules delivered in partnership with academic institutions such as INSEAD, Stanford Graduate School of Business, MIT Sloan School of Management, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and Yale School of Management. Supplementary services are provided by nongovernmental organizations like Ashoka, TechnoServe, and Mercy Corps, while mentoring is facilitated through corporate volunteers from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, HSBC, and Barclays. Financial linkages involve microfinance providers such as Grameen Bank, impact investors like Acumen Fund, and development finance institutions such as International Finance Corporation. The program also leverages digital delivery platforms from Coursera, edX, and LinkedIn Learning to scale training across regions including Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

Impact and Evaluation

Independent evaluations have drawn on methodologies used by Pew Research Center, Brookings Institution, and RAND Corporation to assess outcomes such as revenue growth, employment creation, and access to capital among participants. Reports compared cohorts with benchmarks from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and indicators used by the United Nations Development Programme. Impact studies cited examples where participant firms increased sales and employment, drawing analogies to casework from Schwab Foundation awardees and entrepreneurship laureates highlighted by Forbes and Fast Company. Metrics used in evaluations included those employed by the World Bank’s Doing Business reports and the OECD’s SME database.

Partnerships and Funding

Funding for the initiative combined corporate contributions from Goldman Sachs, grants from foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation, and in-kind support from partner schools like Harvard Business School and INSEAD. Institutional partners included International Finance Corporation, European Investment Bank, and bilateral agencies such as United States Agency for International Development and Department for International Development (UK). Collaborative research and technical assistance were provided by think tanks including Center for Global Development, Chatham House, and World Resources Institute.

Criticisms and Challenges

Critics from Oxfam and academics associated with London School of Economics and University of Oxford have argued that corporate-led training initiatives risk prioritizing scalability over structural change, echoing debates highlighted by commentators in The Guardian, The New York Times, and Financial Times. Questions were raised concerning measurement frameworks similar to critiques of microfinance by scholars at Harvard Kennedy School and Yale on sustainability and inclusion. Implementation challenges cited by practitioners from CARE International and Mercy Corps included adapting curricula to local contexts in countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria, Peru, and Kenya, and ensuring sustained access to finance akin to problems documented by the International Labour Organization and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Category:Women's economic development initiatives