Area business women share their stories with UMF students and the world.

FARMINGTON – Jessica Dafni was intrigued by Nina Gianquinto’s store from the first.

She thought the name “Up Front and Pleasant Gourmet” was so clever, given the quaint gourmet food and wine emporium is located where Front Street and Pleasant Street merge.

So, when Dafni saw Gianquinto’s name on a list of possible interviewees for her feminist oral history class, she quickly chose her.

Months after that decision last fall, Dafni is sure she made the right choice.

“I am so happy I got to know Nina,” she says. “I feel like I’ve definitely made a new friend.”

Gianquinto agrees. “There couldn’t have been a better person to pick me.”

The collaboration was more than a personal success. The work of Dafni and 13 other University of Maine at Farmington students to compile the histories of 15 Maine business women may have a lasting impact.

First, the work showed that, at least among the women chosen, they care more about the quality of their products, services and their positive impact on their communities’ residents than on profits.

In addition, the personal histories will serve as a lasting resource to help other women interested in starting their own businesses in Maine.

And, say organizers of the effort, the findings of the project have the promise of making Maine more friendly to women-owned business.

Taking charge of their economic destiny’

Dafni and her 13 fellow students, all women, signed up for the Telling Their Stories project. A collaboration between Coastal Enterprises Inc., Western Mountains Alliance and the UMF Women’s Studies Program, the project was the brainchild of Jo Josephson.

Josephson, a former journalist just hired by the alliance, came across a publication by Coastal Enterprises titled “Making a Difference: Women Business Owners in Maine 2001.” The publication called attention to the contributions and the sentiments of 301 randomly selected women business owners in the state through a series of statistics.

But as Josephson is quick to point out, numbers alone don’t tell the story of what enterprising women have done to succeed on their own terms in business in this state.

Josephson wanted to put a face on those numbers.

She was directed to Lee Sharkey, a UMF Women’s Studies professor. The two envisioned Sharkey teaching students the fundamentals of collecting oral histories and then sending students out to record the stories of women who were, as Sharkey says, “taking charge of their economic destiny.”

Eight businesswomen from the four-county region (Franklin, Somerset, Oxford and Piscataquis) covered by the alliance were brought together to brainstorm potential subjects.

They came up with 60 names. From that, 15 women representing 14 businesses – from a belly-dancing soil scientist and a nurturing bed-and-breakfast owner, to an earthy holistic healer and a rural weekly newspaper owner – were picked.

In January of 2003, students in the class taught by Sharkey were sent out; last September, a second group taught by Josephson rounded out the project.

For three college credits, each student first conducted a lengthy interview with a woman of their choosing, then transcribed every word and noise.

They were also required to write an oral history, then go back and meet with the women for a followup interview, also transcribed.

Emerging patterns

“We discovered that the success of the business for these women was less about the bottom line,” Josephson says. Rather, it was “about the quality of the product and the service to the community.”

Most of the women started slow, allowing their business to grow incrementally.

They ran successful businesses, often in fields dominated by men, with a feminine touch. They showed concern for their employees, both in and out of work. They weren’t cutthroat; instead of trying to compete, the women carved out their own niche based on a personal interest or a perceived need. They were sensitive to community and ecological needs. They cared about their customers.

“Nina’s relationship with her customers embodies what I’d like to see elsewhere,” Dafni says. “She provides a much more satisfying shopping experience. She’s doing something she loves to do, and it’s not about the money or opening a place on every corner. It’s hard sometimes, but she finds a way to make it work. I am really proud of her.”

Even though the credits are now recorded for the project and the student writers have moved on, the oral histories have not had their last hurrah.

The stories are now available online. Also, Josephson is looking for funding to publish them in a book, which she envisions will be given out to women looking to start their own businesses and economic developers looking for ways to entice women-owned business into their communities.

If published, the book would also include excerpts of the journals kept by students during the project and suggestions for how to make Maine more friendly toward women-owned businesses.

The course has been getting national attention for its innovative concept. Josephson along with two students who took the course, spoke in Washington, D.C., in January at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

People were impressed, Josephson recalls, because the class proved the benefits of service learning.

And even if the book never gets published and the stories never get retold, participants in the project believe it was worthwhile.

Dafni says Gianquinto’s story made her care more about the Farmington community, made her proud to be a woman and gave her faith that she too could open up a business of her own one day.

“A lot of these women don’t necessarily recognize the importance of what they’ve done. This project changed that,” Josephson says proudly.

Gianquinto is one example.

“I was delighted to be a part of this,” she says during a rare moment of down time between wrapping foreign cheeses and suggesting wines to her customers. “I’ve always felt I was an integral part of the downtown here, and being recognized for that was a gold star on my belt.”

For more information on the project, contact Josephson at 778-8143 or connect to the project’s Web site at www.westernmountainsalliance.org.

Editor’s note: The writer of this article is a UMF student and participated in the Telling Their Stories project.