Feminists who yearn to become failed entrepreneurs may find guidance at a new summer program offered by the California-based Feminist Business School, which vows to help students shun “masculine” aspects of capitalism like “meritocracy” and “individualism.”
Starting in a few weeks, the “12 Principles Summer Camp” will be a six-week online discussion group for students who wish to learn about “feminist entrepreneurship” while “sloughing off patriarchal belief systems” and becoming more “embodied.”
The curriculum will be oriented around the Feminist Business School’s “Guide to Prototyping a Feminist Business,” which outlines steps that entrepreneurs can take to help create a more “feminine economy.”
Though the guide is only available upon enrollment, a preview of it outlines the basic steps students can take to create a feminist business, which includes directions to “institutionalize empathy” and “seek happiness, pleasure and the fulfillment of your needs.”
“Free yourself from the myth of meritocracy,” the guide preview tells aspiring business owners. “There is no earning. There’s no deserving. There’s no reward,” it says, adding that students should “let inner wisdom be your guide.”
While an official start date hasn’t yet been decided, hopeful students are told to sign up for the camp’s waitlist for updates. The camp is one of a few programs offered by the Feminist Business School, which also currently runs two online classes for entrepreneurs.
As PJ Media previously reported, the Feminist Business School launched in late 2017 and is founded upon a critique of “the masculine economy.” This masculine economy values “distribution of wealth,” “the myth of meritocracy,” “competition,” and “profit,” all of which can be detrimental to the “soul” of entrepreneurs.
However, it doesn’t have to be like this.
“If capitalism is an economy that values masculine traits, what could another economy look like?” asks Jennifer Armbrust, the Evergreen State College graduate who serves as the Feminist Business School’s only instructor.
Instead, a more “feminine economy” could value other traits, such as “generosity,” “empathy,” “gratitude,” “integrity,” and “intimacy,” Armbrust suggests.
Though these traits aren’t necessarily conducive to earning profit, it’s not clear that Armbrust even wants her business students to think about that, as she suggests that what’s most important is “revolution” and “new cultural values.”
“This is about redistributing power and resources, based on feminine principles. This is about radical social transformation. This is about making the world we want to live in,” the website explains.
Unlike other programs, such as the Women’s Business Center at Canisius College and the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Chatham University, this appears to be the first “business” school aiming to only teach feminist theory.
No actual business skills — such as bookkeeping or marketing — will be taught.
PJ Media reached out to the Feminist Business School for more information on their summer camp, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @Toni_Airaksinen.
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