Task Force on Women Business Owners Remarks on Receiving the Report of the Task Force.

During one speech while I was campaigning for President, I said that when Amy grows up, I'd like for her to have just as clear a vision of being a medical doctor as a nurse, or a lawyer as a secretary, or to be President as to be a President's wife. I know when I was a child, I was an entrepreneur at a very early age, selling boiled peanuts when I was 5 years old and later graduating to hamburgers and homemade ice cream. [Laughter] Amy has already started in the lemonade business, as you may have noticed during the halcyon days when I was a nominee and before I had any responsibilities as President.

And I think that last year, the testimony that Juanita Kreps gave to the Congress about the problems with women being entrepreneurs and business executives inspired me to call on this Task Force to meet to investigate the present problems and to give me advice on what I might do as President heading the executive branch of Government and having influence in the business community and, perhaps, some limited influence in the higher education institutions to help with the problem.

There is a definite problem. Although women enjoy a major role in the ownership of stock in businesses, sometimes earned by themselves, sometimes inherited after the death of a husband, there's an alarmingly small portion of women ownership of active businesses in the financial structure of our country. Less than one-half of 1 percent—as a matter of fact, I think three-tenths of 1 percent of gross business receipts in this country are derived from businesses owned by women.

This is an alarmingly small percentage. And it certainly is not related to either the need or the inclination or ambition of women who want to be at the management level in the free enterprise system of our country.

Women have the same motivations as men for wanting to own and control and to manage the business life of our country. They desire, obviously, to earn a living, to make money, to take what talents or ability they have and to let that talent be expressed in productive contribution to society and to exercise management, judgments, and to shape the communities within which they live, to set an example for others to enter the competitive world that makes our country a great one.

Women also have the same problems that men do in becoming entrepreneurs, particularly in a small business environment, inadequate capital, the need to build a reputation that would encourage lending institutions to invest in that person. These opportunities and problems are shared. But women suffer from discrimination.

I don't think there's any doubt that a Federal agency or a private lending institution, an institution of higher education has an almost innate feeling that a business investment would best be made through a man than a woman. It's not fair. It's not deserved. There's no reason for it. But it exists.

I've looked over the outline of the recommendations of this Task Force. And I think there have been some very clear delineations of the reasons for this problem, and I have a responsibility along with all of you to correct those problems.

Almost every agency of the Federal Government, from the Internal Revenue Service, the Commerce Department, the Agriculture Department, obviously the Treasury Department, the Small Business Administration, can take administrative actions without the requirement of congressional action or law change to help resolve some of the problems that have been identified.

There's a greatly expanding women's work force; almost half the women in our country now have jobs outside their own homes. But in even middle and upperlevel management positions, only 1 woman in 20 enjoys this opportunity or privilege or responsibility, less than third the rate of that enjoyed by men.

Well, I'll do all I can to help alleviate this problem and to remove the discriminatory aspects of our society both in government and outside of government.

And to close, I might say that I have this motivation not just to please women or to honor women but because of the best interests of our country, because when we lose a tremendous reservoir of talent, innovation, sensitivity, competence that we are presently losing, it hurts our country. And I want to be sure that we don't suffer any further from this deprivation, not just of women but of the American system.

So, I considered myself a partner with the women of America when I asked the Task Force to perform this work. I hope that you will continue to look upon me as a partner as we carry out the recommendations that have been made.

At the next Cabinet meeting, this will be on my agenda. I'll go down the list of recommendations with the Cabinet members, the heads of the major agencies, and perhaps we'll have an immediate indication to you of tangible results. And I would like to be sure that this report does not gather dust on the shelves of those involved, but becomes a working document that would yield benefits not only to you but to Amy and others in whom I have confidence for the future.

Thank you very much.