Feminist first leadership: Helen McEachern reflects on our new principles

The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women proudly follows feminist leadership principles and aims to build an inclusive environment where everyone feels they belong.  

Our outgoing CEO Helen McEachern shares her reflections on feminist leadership and the other guiding principles which frame our work. 

In March, the Foundation launched its new Ready For Business strategy, which shares our ambitious new goal to revolutionise business opportunities for a million women entrepreneurs by 2030.   

The engine of this strategy and one of the things I’m most proud of are our new organisational principles. These values articulate the best of who we are, how we work and our aspirations for the future.

Feminist first

Feminism for me is the simple belief that women and girls should have equal opportunities to men and boys.  My dad passed away recently, and it was only after he was gone that I realised he was the first feminist I ever met.  It’s not a word he would have identified with, but from an early age he gave me the gift of aspiration and expectation – never treating me and my dreams or responsibilities differently because I was a girl.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t very old when I realised that this privilege was not shared by all. 

Feminism is deeply embedded in everything the Foundation does, as we exist to serve women in overcoming barriers and achieving their full potential as entrepreneurs. We pride ourselves on being women-centred in the design and delivery of all our services and how we view the business ecosystem that surrounds women entrepreneurs.  With our new strategy now in place we are working to ensure an intersectional feminist approach is reflected in every level of our work and culture.  

We have articulated four other principles in our new strategy and over time the team will share more about what each of them mean to us.  Here I’ll share just the highlights: 

Women entrepreneurs at our heart 

Without women entrepreneurs we wouldn’t exist, so it is vital we put their experiences, perspectives and passions at the heart of what we do and how we do it.  

One of the ways we live this principle is by asking women entrepreneurs about their experiences through our annual audit. Through a survey, women tell us about the challenges they face, the opportunities they have and what changes they would like to see in the world and in the entrepreneurial landscape. We then share and respond to what they tell us. 

Last year, women told us that the cost of living crisis was having an even bigger impact on them than the COVID-19 pandemic had.  We also know from the survey that a knock-on effect of the pandemic was an increase in their unpaid care workload. The Foundation is now working through evidence-building, analysis and storytelling to support women entrepreneurs by shaping global policy on unpaid care work.  

Dynamic and entrepreneurial 

The essence of entrepreneurship is creativity and innovation. We harness this spirit of courage, embracing opportunities and making bold moves to achieve our mission. 

This often means embracing new technologies and harnessing them for good. The HerVenture app is one such development.  Using a mobile app to bring women essential business skills and training on the go. In each country we bring the app to, we work with partners to localise the app’s modules so that they are specific to the cultures and contexts of the women entrepreneurs in that country.  Our ambition is to continue to expand access to the app to as many countries as possible.

Powered by knowledge 

We seek data to understand and share.  We nurture a culture of enquiry and positive challenge. We look outward and encourage dialogue and exchange 

We have developed a new Theory of Change for our new strategy.  We are committed to enhancing the connection between our evaluations and KPIs to inform our work so we can grow our impact and the relevance of our services.  We are also passionate and proactive about sharing our learning with sector peers to engage in conversations that build the entrepreneurial landscape for women. 

Great to work with 

We care. We are experts. We always seek to deliver high-quality work and results. We are positive and professional, and always operate with integrity.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from over more than five years at the Foundation, it’s that we truly are great to work with. As I prepare to leave the Foundation in July and move to lead CARE International UK, I am grateful for my time here, for the incredible memories and milestones that our team experienced alongside partners and of course, the women entrepreneurs themselves.  

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