To coincide with International Women’s Day, Google did something amazing. They created an icon on Google Business pages where you can advertise your business as being owned or led by women.
It’s all part of Google’s new campaign called Womenwill.
Womenwill is a Google initiative to create economic opportunity for women everywhere, so that they can grow and succeed. Helping women make the most of technology to build skills, get inspired, and connect with each other through trainings, events and advocacy, we aim to drive conversations promoting gender equality to benefit everyone.
Gender gaps persist in many aspects of home and work life, in many different parts of the world. But what would happen if we could erase them? According to research by McKinsey, advancing women’s equality could increase the global GDP $12 to 28 trillion by 2025.
As part of making the world’s information accessible and useful to everyone, we want to level the playing field for women, which leads to economic benefits not just for themselves, but for their families, communities, and society.
Google started the Womenwill initiative to create economic opportunity for women by connecting them to the online world and tools to make the most of it. From helping women in rural villages get online and bringing together women entrepreneurs, to advocating for more inclusive workplaces and partnering with groups like UN Women to drive conversations around gender equality, we develop and support programs to help women build skills, get inspired, and connect with each other.
Here’s a quick refresher of what women weren’t able to do only fifty years ago.
There’s something profoundly moving and powerful about clicking that button that announces to the Google world and the world at large that your business is owned by a woman. Our own Ginger Jones is the founder of WebPunch, and we can’t thank her enough for paving the way for all the women on our team. We love Matt and the men just as much, but I think we can all agree that men’s voices have never been dismissed in the same way that women’s voices have tended to be. Real progress is being made!
If you are a woman and you own or run your business, we’re going to show you exactly how to locate and click the icon declaring to the world that your business is women-led!
Step One:
Go to Google My Business and select your business.
Step Two:
Click on the Info tab on the left-hand side of the screen.
Step Three:
Scroll down and look for Add Attributes in the middle of your screen and click on the pencil icon.
Step Four:
A new window will pop up and you can click the Women-led button and make it blue.
Step Five:
Wait for Google to update. You will see this message from Google: Please note: Edits may be reviewed for quality and can take up to 3 days to be published.
When your new attribute publishes live, the Women led icon when a search is performed for your business.
Google spokeswoman Liz Davidoff wrote in an email,
“We strive to organize the world’s information in a way that is inclusive of all people. We’ve added the women-led attribute to empower women-led businesses to succeed online and help people find places to visit using Google Maps and Search.”
Sometimes we grumble and complain about Google making our lives more difficult but we take it all back. They are doing incredible things for women around the globe and we couldn’t be more thrilled.
Click here to find out more about Google’s themes of Digital literacy, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, and Workplace. We are all aboard and honored to be riding the Google train.
Karin Siccardi is a Reputation Defender, Blogger, and Proofreader/Editor at WebPunch. Originally from Oregon, she migrated to Tennessee where she lives with her husband, four children, and the family dog who lounges at her feet as she enjoys the luxury of working from her home office. An avid reader, she enjoys all wordy things as well as coffee, chocolate, and wine.