Finding common ground

Shared interests and mutual respect bring two businesswomen's clubs together.
By GARRY CLARK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
The benefits of collaboration are being realized more frequently between two area businesswomen's organizations.
The Youngstown Business and Professional Women and the Youngstown Chapter of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs Inc. have been forging a mutually beneficial relationship for several years.
Anne McMahon, past president of YBPW, said the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Club was founded in July 1919. "Ohio was one of the first states to get involved," she said, "and the Youngstown Chapter was the first in the state."
Purpose
The chapter celebrated its 75th anniversary last year. The NBPW has had three major issues throughout the intervening years: elimination of sex discrimination in employment, the principle of equal pay and the need for a comprehensive equal rights amendment.
Though a somewhat younger organization, having been founded in the spring of 1935, the NANBPW has espoused similar principles for black business women. The local chapter was begun in the spring of 1958 through the efforts of 17 charter members led by Margaret Linton. Tuana Bennett Vinson serves as the organization's current president.
Thus, the two clubs share common interests, although they also have areas in which the focus is different. McMahon said, "I went to Madonna Chism Pinkard, then-president of the [Youngstown NANBPW] group, and we felt that it was important that we do something together, not necessarily all the time, and not necessarily that we merge because we could see that there's a special place sometimes for African-American women to meet by themselves and deal with issues that they face in particular." She and Vinson said that the NANBPW caters more to black women and their experiences in education, economic development and those in more urban areas.
Vinson concurs with this sentiment, and the two share the belief that, although the two groups have a tremendous amount of mutual respect, it is better for them to remain separate entities.
Why
McMahon said that a lot of the reasoning behind this comes from the area's background and history of racial tension.
"Right now there's so much separateness in our community," she said. "Youngstown is the third most segregated city in the country. It's difficult to interpret because the separateness breeds the problem, and the problem breeds the separateness."
She said that part of that is a result of how the Mahoning Valley was settled, with different ethnic communities living together based on language and natural heritage. A person could work in the steel mill with little or no education and have a boss or supervisor who spoke his language, leaving little need to learn English for work. Thus, the separateness continued.
Both McMahon and Vinson, as well as members of their two clubs, are determined to be part of bringing about change by getting together from time to time, networking, holding seminars and generally assisting each other.
The two clubs hold a joint event, "Lessons in Leadership," each October during National Business Women's Week in conjunction with the Youngstown State University Williamson College of Business Administration. The groups also held a joint leadership conference, "Shaping the Lives of Women," in March.
Both groups have a membership that numbers in the teens, and they hold various fund-raisers for their scholarship funds, from luncheons and style shows to selling pins.
Membership requirements have some differences, but the overall goals of the two groups are similar, giving them plenty of opportunities for working together for future success.
clark@vindy.com