Summary
How do women entrepreneurs overcome barriers to success in the business world? This lesson examines the challenges and triumphs of notable female business leaders. Students will engage in collaborative inquiry, beginning with an iCAP video featuring successful Oklahoma businesswomen. They will identify systemic obstacles women face in professional environments and develop practical solutions to these challenges. The culminating project requires students to research and create “trading cards” of accomplished women entrepreneurs, then strategically assemble and justify their ideal business leadership team. This process encourages critical thinking about leadership qualities while highlighting diverse pathways to entrepreneurial success.
Essential Question(s)
What characteristics do successful female entrepreneurs have in common? What does it take for a woman to become a successful entrepreneur?
Snapshot
Engage
Students will review statements about women in business and try to determine which of them are true and which are false.
Explore
Students will read an article about a successful woman in business and complete a modified Frayer Model. Once they have finished, they will share challenges the female entrepreneurs faced as they began their businesses.
Explain
Students watch a compilation ICAP video of a variety of women business leaders and work in small groups to brainstorm creative solutions and strategies for the typical challenges women face in the business world.
Extend
Students will engage in a Web Inquiry to research a new successful businesswoman and create a trading card to highlight their work and accomplishments.
Evaluate
Students use the trading cards they made of female entrepreneurs and, as an Exit Ticket, select and justify three of the businesswomen they would choose who, together, would make the most successful powerhouse business or team of business partners.
Materials
Lesson Slides—Women in Business (attached)
Explore Article 1—Tory Burch—Women in Business (attached; one article per group)
Explore Article 2—Lori Greiner—Women in Business (attached; one article per group)
Explore Article 3—Joyce Meyer—Women in Business (attached; one article per group)
Explore Article 4—Madam CJ Walker—Women in Business (attached; one article per group)
Frayer Model—Women in Business (attached; one per student)
Web Inquiry Graphic Organizer—Women in Business (attached; one per student)
Strategy Harvest—Women in Business (attached; one per student)
Trading Card Template—Women in Business (attached)
Pen or pencil
Notebook paper
Engage
20 Minute(s)
Introduce the lesson’s title by displaying slide 2 from the attached Lesson Slides.
Share the lesson’s essential question and learning objectives on slides 3 and 4 to the extent you feel necessary.
Move to slide 5 and let students know that they will be using the Fiction in the Facts instructional activity. Begin by telling them that this activity is similar to the game, “Two Truths and a Lie.” Display slide 6. Instruct students to follow along as you or a student designee reads out the three statements presented on the slide. As you read, students should try to decide which statement they feel is false. (You may want to form groups for this activity.)
Once everyone is familiar with the statements, poll the class to see which statement they believe is false. This can be done by raising cards numbered 1, 2, and 3, or simply by using the number of fingers to indicate which of the three statements is false. Invite a few students to share their rationale. Move to the follow-up slides in each pair to share the correct answer. Provide further explanation for each statement as needed.
Continue in this manner for slides 6-13.
Explore
Display slide 14. Indicate to students that they will read an article about one of four successful women entrepreneurs: Tory Burch, Lori Greiner, Joyce Meyer, or Madam CJ Walker. Assign each student one of the four articles to read about successful businesswomen. Allow them time to complete the article they have been assigned or chosen.
Advance to slide 15 and pass out the Frayer Model handout. Explain that the Frayer Model will help identify the unique qualities of these women entrepreneurs, specifically the skills needed, characteristics, risks, and gains.
When students have had sufficient time to read, pose the questions on slide 16 as part of a class discussion.
What specific skills did she need?
Which characteristics does she display in her everyday life?
What are some specific risks she had to take for this business venture?
What are some gains that she made in this successful venture?
Repeat or pose the question on Slide 16: “What are some challenges that the businesswomen face that you read about?” Use the Elbow Partners strategy to ask students to turn and talk to a neighbor about an interesting tidbit of information they read about some of these businesswomen. Then, record their responses on the board. (Alternatively, you could modify the 30-Second Expert Strategy, choosing volunteers to interview each other and then present for the class.)
Explain
45 Minute(s)
Display Slide 17. Let students know they will be watching an interview compiled from conversations with a variety of women business leaders. Have students draw a simple T-chart on notebook paper, labeling the columns “Obstacles” and “How they Overcame Them.” As they watch the video, have them jot down any words that capture the essence of these entrepreneurs’ obstacles and their approaches to overcoming them or resolving issues.
After the video and follow-up discussion, move on to slide 18. Explain the Strategy Harvest instructional strategy. Assign students to small groups and distribute the Strategy Harvest worksheet. Encourage students to work together to brainstorm creative solutions or strategies.
Extend
Display slide 19 and share the Web Inquiry instructional strategy. Let students know that they will be researching a successful woman in business (Ursula Burns, Debbi Fields, Arianna Huffington, Indra Nooyi, Sheryl Sandberg, Zhang Xin, or others). If you choose one of the listed businesswomen, use slides 20-25 to introduce these entrepreneurs to your students.
Move to slide 26 and share some of the information that your students should be looking for as they research the woman they chose. Let them know that some of the information they gather on their female entrepreneur will be used later in the lesson. Instruct students to navigate to the Wakelet short link k20.ou.edu/wb on slide 26 and take notes on their assigned entrepreneur in a Google Doc or on paper. Use the graphic organizers on slide 27 or Slide 28 for students who might need it. (If you use slide 28, tell students to start at the top and go around clockwise.) Students can draw their own spider or idea web map graphic organizer on notebook paper, or you can hand out a copy of the graphic organizer attached to the Identity Chart strategy.
When your students have completed their research, display slide 29 and instruct your students to create a trading card similar to a baseball or Pokemon card. Use slide 29 to outline the details students will want to include on their card, including a photo and relevant information that they learned in the web inquiry. Slides 30-32 offer some trading card examples. Students can use presentational software like Canva, PowerPoint, Google Slides, or the attached Trading Card Template.
Evaluate
20 Minute(s)
Have students put their cards on bulletin boards or at stations and conduct a Gallery Walk so that students can familiarize themselves with the businesswomen students have chosen to research. (Alternatively, you could use the Mingle or Fold the Line strategy to introduce many trading cards to students quickly.)
Move to slide 33 and share the Bell Ringers and Exit Tickets instructional strategy with your students. Ask them to think about the women they learned about throughout the course of the lesson and to consider which three they would put together to make the most successful powerhouse business or team of business partners. Have them justify why they would want those three women entrepreneurs on the same team.
Resources
K20 Center. (n.d.). Bell ringers and exit tickets. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/125
K20 Center. (n.d.). Elbow partners. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/116
K20 Center. (n.d.). Fiction in the Facts. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/60
K20 Center. (n.d.). Fold the line. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/171
K20 Center. (n.d.). Four corners. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/138
K20 Center. (n.d.). Frayer model. Strategies. Retrieved from https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/126
K20 Center. (n.d.). Identity chart. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/2729
K20 Center. (n.d.). Mingle. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/53
K20 Center. (n.d.). Strategy harvest. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/135
K20 Center. (n.d.). Wakelet. Tech tools. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/tech-tool/2180
K20 Center. (n.d.). T-chart. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/86
K20 Center. (n.d.). 30 second spotlight. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/3748
K20 Center. (n.d.). Web inquiry. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/2532
K20 Center. (2025, Jan 23). ICAP – K20 ICAP - Women in Business [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TsmUqERVTI