Madam CJ Walker was the first woman self-made millionaire. Most of the common day students will not learn about many women leaders. Madam CJ Walker was wealthy because of her entrepreneurship in hair products. She paved the way for other women entrepreneurs.

There are not many self-made women millionaires in history other than Madam CJ Walker. That’s why her story is so important. Walker made her fortunes selling self-made hair care products for African hair. She was inspired to create haircare products for black women after a scalp disorder caused her to lose much of her own hair. She came up with a treatment that would completely change the black hair care industry.She was invested in the Walker Company and created something called the “Walker System”. In this process she used hot combs and her “magical” hair grower to do hair. Madam CJ Walker also used her entrepreneurship as a way for philanthropy.   She donated generously to educational causes and black charities, funding scholarships for women at Tuskegee Institute and donating to the NAACP, the black YMCA, and dozens of other organizations that helped make black history. She was a strong woman and is said to have amazing marketing strategies and being very successful in those. In those days it was more like self-promotion than marketing. It is important to note that because women were undervalued and mistreated her determined will to become an entrepreneur means more than anything because she was the underdog for so long because of her race and sex.

Self-Made a Netflix Original, was released in March 2020 capturing the life of Madam C.J. Walker. After watching all 4 episodes in a row I really wished I made time to watch this sooner. The show is all about the story and journey of Madam C.J. Walker to wealth and success. The show follows her life and journey though being a poor washwoman to a business owner and millionaire. In the movie she was a washwoman who was abused by her husband and from the stress and age she lost her hair. She felt ugly and worthless in a world that was saying true beauty was women with long and thick hair. She developed a formula for hair growth and started selling it. There are many obstacles Madam C.J. Walker must tackle in the show that compares to the way she must have been treated in real life. Being that she is a colored woman in the 20th century. The color of your skin and whether you were a woman was a big factor in the 20th century whether you will be taken seriously or not. Madam C.J Walker had lost many opportunities and it was harder to build her company because of the color of her skin. She has to empower other women to make their own money and careers. Her tenacity is what brought her so much wealth because she never gave up. Through all the ups and downs with her company she never let it defeat her.

In modern day schools many young women students feel unrepresented by other women. Women  leaders whether that is in the Presidential office or in leadership positions in a company are rare. Young girls and women need to feel comfortable and represent themselves as women in leadership positions but the problem is they don’t feel comfortable because they don’t see and hear about women like Madam C.J. Walker. Young girls would be more influenced into creating a business and running for office if they felt comfortable talking and being heard from men. The moral of the story is young girls are the age and generation that will provide us with new and wonderful businesses and products and hopefully one day make it to President.