OMWI BENEFITS
y
e Advantage of k a You I: T rA W M l l O
By Ann Sullivan
Did
you have any idea that there are 20 offices throughout federal agencies that focus on the promotion of women and women-owned businesses? They are the Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWIs) in agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Established in the Dodd-Frank legislation in 2010 by Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California, these offices are charged with helping women-owned businesses become vendors and ensuring that women are hired in the agencies and financial institutions they regulate. Advancing women is a practice that, until recently, the federal government has hardly ever focused on. In the federal government (nearly three million civilian employees), women are growing in number, though not necessarily influence. While 44 percent of the federal workforce is female, women hold only one-third of Senior Executive positions at federal agencies, according to Government Executive. One study by the Center for American Progress found that, on our current pace, it will take until 2085 for women to attain parity with men in leadership roles in our country.
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But that can change. While recently moderating a panel of two OMWIs – one from the FHFA and CFPB – it became clear that OMWI could be named the Office of Women Advancement because of their mandate to advance women internally and externally with their agencies. Raising the number and authority of women within government is at the core of the 20 OMWIs. While the history of these offices has been well-documented, women business owners should know the ways they can take advantage of these offices. Important to remember, these tips of using OMWIs to your benefit will largely only apply to the federal agencies dealing with financial matters or the Federal Reserve Banks. Nonetheless, using OMWI standards with other agencies or in the private sector can prove to be a valuable approach.
Diversifying the Supply Chain
Along with encouraging diversity within the workplace, OMWIs exist to enable more contract awards to women-owned businesses. Section 342 of Dodd-Frank goes to say that efforts to assist women extend to contracting, where OMWIs must support “inclusion in all levels of business activities.” That’s a large mandate to help