Hello, we are Sara Shinton and Janet Wilkinson, and this site supports our work developing enterprise with women. We both run successful independent businesses, but take every opportunity to work together.
The information on this site is focused on enterprise for women and complements our other work with academics, researchers and commercial organisations.
As the site grows we’ll invite contributions from enterprising women in our network, share our ideas and point you to valuable resources, inspiring ideas and anything we feel will add something to your life.
The knickers were first aired in 2010 at the Girl Geek Scotland workshop on Creativity in Business and again in 2012 at the Ingenious Women programme developed for Edinburgh University.
Entrepreneurial knickers are, in short, wardrobe essentials for enterprising women.
You may be familiar with de Bono’s thinking hats, a widely used tool to boost creative thinking. The principle behind them is to adopt different perspectives on a problem to increase the number of options you create. Whilst preparing the materials for the Girl Geek Scotland workshop on Creativity in Business, Sara realised that women need to have different perspectives to be successful and resilient. This started a line of thought :“what kind of hat would a GirlGeek wear?”
In a flash of inspiration she realized that as a female entrepreneur it isn’t really about hats, it’s about what’s hidden from view. What you draw upon for inner strength. The best parallel, apparel-wise is your knickers!
So here are the entrepreneurial knickers.
This site carries the original materials from the workshops and we hope will be developed over time to carry stories, insights and advice from enterprising women in all walks of life.
So, gird up your loins and put on your entrepreneurial pants.
Without further ado, it’s time to meet the knickers…
Enterprising women wear entrepreneurial knickers! One pair for each day of the week, plus a spare pair just in case…