Fran Pastore Fires Up Crowd, Talks Women’s Empowerment in Business

On Wednesday evening, the League of Women Voters of Greenwich held an event at the Innis Arden Golf Club in Old Greenwich.

The event was titled “Empowered Women Empower Women – Female Entrepreneurship On The Rise,” and was delivered by Fran Pastore, President & CEO of the Women’s Business Development Council.

The Women’s Business Development Council is a non-profit organization headquartered in Stamford, whose goal is to provide female entrepreneurs with the tools they need to start and grow their own businesses.

Pastore detailed her experiences as a woman in the business world, including having to leave a job on Wall Street due to sexual harassment, and how until as recently 1988, women could not get a business loan without a male cosigner, greatly limiting their access to capital.

Even today, it takes women on average six more attempts than men to gain access to the capital they need.

Until the Women’s Business Development Council was founded by Pastore, Connecticut was the only state in the country without an organization designed to educate female entrepreneurs.