A coworking space dedicated to boosting female entrepreneurship will be inaugurated on Thursday and will become the first coworking in the city catering especially to women.
Nestled in the leafy southern municipality of Watermael-Boitsfort, Womanly is marketed by its creators as a "brand new tool to meet the needs of female entrepreneurs."
Womanly's co-director Marie Buron told BX1 that the goal of the shared office space was "not to completely ban men," but to support women entrepreneurs by providing them with a dedicated space and tools.
Womanly will "help unburden women of their mental load so that they can develop their business," Buron said, referring to the unofficial and unequal way in which household, social-life and emotional management tasks are split between the genders.
To do so, the new coworking space offers members special services like dry cleaning and laundry and shopping assistance on top of standard office services like mail management, meeting rooms and printing.
With monthly subscription fees starting at €175, Womanly will also aim to boost networking between female entrepreneurs through a range of events, seminars, workshops and conferences held in a "friendly and efficient environment."
Ahead of its inauguration on Thursday, the new shared offices have already turned some heads on social media, with some users admitting to being confused by the concept.
"I don't understand. Why exactly do I need a coworking space separated from male entrepreneurs?" one user wrote, while others pointed out that child care spaces would be a good addition.
Responding to the comments on Facebook, the coworking space said that "women who work with other women work more efficiently and handle stress better," citing a number of polls and studies carried out primarily in the United States.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
