r. Ethel Chiwara Mupambwa was 16 when she ran away from home in Zimbabwe to avoid a polygamous marriage. Today, she heads a microfinance business with a loan book value of $1.5 million. Irene Chong, following a successful career as a private banker, set up an
online community in Singapore that helps artists sell their work. And Han Wenliang bucked the trend in China of moving from the countryside to the city by returning to her home village to start a livestreaming e-commerce business selling local chestnuts.
These courageous women have helped others within their communities by starting businesses that continue to create jobs and wealth—inspiring confidence in other women, helping break gender stereotypes, and transforming lives. Each has forged her own path, taking financial and personal risks along the way.
The Freedom Founder:
Dr. Ethel Chiwara Mupambwa
Dr. Mupambwa’s father had four wives and raised his many children in a strict, patriarchal order prioritizing boys. Even though she was immersed in this—about one-third of the families in her village of Gokwe in Zimbabwe were polygamous—she recognized the inequity. At just 15, she was told she would have to marry a local man who already had a wife. Dr. Mupambwa realized it would be up to him to decide her destiny. So she ran away.
Her first bus journey beyond her village opened a world of possibilities. She finished school and got a place at Zimbabwe’s National University of Science and Technology to study finance. During that time, Dr. Mupambwa had no communication with her dad. To her surprise, after learning about her results, he invited her home. “The village gave me a huge party to celebrate. Me. A girl. I had opened up opportunities for other girls. Proof we could do it,” she recalls.
Throughout her studies, she earned money selling sweets and typing fellow students’ work. This gave her some liquidity just as she was learning about microfinance.
“In 2013, I started offering little loans to bridge people until payday. Then I found women selling at roadsides—tomatoes or clothes—who needed finance and as my loan book grew, I registered my business and got a license,” she says. Today, her aim is for MoneyMart Finance to support women across Zimbabwe to start their own businesses—even the smallest projects.
After ups and downs, including hyperinflation, two currency devaluations and the Covid-19 pandemic, MoneyMart Finance today has a loan book worth $1.5 million and more than 10,000 customers, with the vast majority being women.
She has also won plaudits and prizes, including becoming a winner of the Africa’s Business Heroes Prize Competition, a Pan-African entrepreneurship competition sponsored by the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Philanthropy. “The support means a lot. But I always say that fortune favors the brave. Stand up for your beliefs,” she says.
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Incorrect!
An average of 30% of "Africa's Business Heroes" applicants are female entrepreneurs.
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Co-founder and Managing Director of
MoneyMart Finance
Ethel Mupambwa
Fortune favors the brave. Stand up for your beliefs.
Ms. Chong doesn’t consider herself courageous; she just believes in what she does. However, to many, her story is about the courage to change the narrative for women.
Growing up in a humble family in Singapore with a mother who didn’t believe girls needed a college degree, she was determined to take control of her own life. She went to college and became a banker.
She noticed many of her clients collected art, but galleries and artists from Europe and the U.S. dominated the industry. At the same time, she saw many struggling up-and-coming artists in Singapore. She realized a digital platform could connect time-poor, cash-rich collectors with emerging talented artists who had a local perspective.
Historically, the art market had operated offline. But since 2019, global online art sales have jumped from $4.8 billion to $13.6 billion, partially boosted by Covid-19 lockdowns when people couldn’t visit galleries in person. Ms. Chong saw the opportunity. In 2022, she launched #MeetArts as a one-stop digital space for local artists.
Starting #MeetArts took courage. She created a new model for buying and selling art while admitting she was no digital specialist. Her skills gap prompted her to apply to the Alibaba Netpreneur Training program, which to date has taught some 500 female entrepreneurs among over 1,900 entrepreneurs worldwide, how to harness digital technology to transform their businesses. From the training, she saw the power of livestreaming and social media in e-commerce.
#MeetArts currently relies on social media to build followers, and it’s poised to launch an online platform enabling artists to post about themselves, and support one another.
Today, #MeetArts hosts up to 500 artists, including those with disabilities and special needs, and ex-prisoners. “With this platform, we’re doing something more than promoting artwork. We’re educating the public and building an inclusive art community,” she explains.
Ms. Chong acknowledges it’s never easy for women to break gender norms. But she also believes in inner power. “If you preserve your core, stay constructive and true to your values, you’ll be a champion for yourself, if no one else.”
The Community Builder:
Irene Chong
Entrepreneur and Founder of #MeetArts
Irene Chong
If you preserve your core, stay constructive and true to your values, you’ll be a champion for yourself.
The Digital Pioneer:
Han Wenliang
A Taobao Live entrepreneur
Han Wenliang
All the changes happened with a shift in mindsets—once women were awakened, they started to see their life differently.
In China, the chestnut industry generates approximately $4 billion a year, yet many small producers have meager incomes as they sell their harvest to large wholesalers for a fraction of the retail price. Ms. Han is changing that, starting with her hometown.
Ms. Han grew up in a secluded village in Qinglong County in northern China. Chestnuts are the main cash crop and almost every household has a tree. For decades, the method of collection, timing and quantity of the harvest, as well as the price, were dictated unilaterally by wholesalers. Often Ms. Han would cry in frustration at the minimal compensation offered for the backbreaking work.
She dreamed of going to Beijing to learn how to help her family, and did realize her dream of moving to a city for education and work. “[But] I always felt Qinglong chestnuts deserved more opportunities,” she says.
As China’s e-commerce market rapidly expanded, digital services reached rural areas. Inspired by an employee sent to her village by Alibaba to help drive economic development through e-commerce in 2021, Ms. Han learned to harness digital tools such as livestreaming to boost chestnut sales in Taobao stores (a Chinese shopping platform). Her first attempt at hosting livestreaming sessions was an unexpected success and orders came in so quickly that it broke the printer. She ultimately decided to move back to her village.
Ms. Han summoned the courage to pitch her fellow villagers to sell their chestnuts via the internet, which was an alien concept to them. Ms. Han established a shared workspace in the village where women can set up their own online stores and livestream. This opened up a new world for the women in the village.
“All the changes happened with a shift in mindsets—once the women were awakened, they started to see their life differently,” Ms. Han says. “Through Taobao Live, they were able to sell products from home. They have become more confident and developed the courage to embrace opportunities.” Indeed, among the tens of millions of active micro, small and medium-sized businesses on Alibaba’s e-commerce platform, some 46 percent are led by women.
Ms. Han is proud that Qinglong chestnuts are now known to consumers all over China thanks to livestreaming, and people can buy them directly online. Last year saw the highest sales prices for Qinglong chestnuts, which more than doubled from 2021.
“I used to shed tears when I helped my family collect chestnuts. Now we collect them with a smile,” she says.
Q.
Incorrect!
78% of live streamers across Alibaba's platform in China are women.
Q.
On average, what percentage of “Africa’s Business Heroes” applicants are female entrepreneurs?
Correct!
An average of 30% of "Africa's Business Heroes" applicants are female entrepreneurs.
Incorrect!
Only 26% of middle and senior management roles in South-East Asian countries are held by women.
What’s the proportion of women in middle and senior management roles in South-East Asian countries?
Correct!
Only 26% of middle and senior management roles in South-East Asian countries are held by women.
What percentage do women make up among live streamers across Alibaba’s platform in China?
Correct!
78% of live streamers across Alibaba's platform in China are women.
It takes hard work, courage and grit to start a business and change attitudes within a community. For some, the odds are stacked against them, making success all the more remarkable. Here are three extraordinary stories to celebrate fearless women on International Women’s Day 2023.
Fortune Favors
the Brave:
Stories of Women Breaking
the Business Mold
