By day, I spend my time empowering women to build businesses.
Many women choose franchising. It offers structure, community and a proven model something that can be particularly appealing to women balancing entrepreneurship with family life.
Franchising has quietly become one of the most powerful pathways for women into business ownership but recently I’ve been thinking about a question that goes far beyond business models.
What happens if the cultural environment surrounding young men begins to shift in a direction that undermines decades of progress for women?
The question came into sharper focus after the recent documentary by Louis Theroux exploring the rise of the online “manosphere” a network of influencers and online communities promoting hyper masculine and often anti feminist ideas.
For women in business, the implications of this trend go deeper than social media debates.
Because business ecosystems do not exist in isolation from culture.
They reflect it.
Across the UK, women are opening childcare franchises, education businesses, fitness franchises, retail operations and service based companies. Many are drawn to the combination of independence and support that franchising can offer.
Importantly, franchising has also allowed many mothers to build businesses around family life.
Flexible hours.
Local operations.
Community rooted services.
For many women, franchising has been a gateway into business and financial independence that might otherwise have felt out of reach.
But the growth of women in franchising is not just an economic trend.
It reflects something bigger.
A cultural shift in how women see their roles in business and leadership but the underlying narratives matter.
Many influencers within that online ecosystem frame women’s independence whether financial, professional or social as a threat to traditional masculinity.
Equality is presented as a loss for men.
Female ambition is framed as something that disrupts “natural roles”.
These narratives do not simply stay online. They shape attitudes.
And attitudes shape environments including workplaces and business networks.
If younger generations of men begin absorbing the idea that women’s progress comes at their expense, it risks creating subtle resistance to the very progress women have made in industries like franchising.
That resistance may not always appear as overt discrimination.
More often, it appears quietly.
Women not being taken seriously as business owners.
Female leadership questioned more than male leadership.
Ambition framed differently depending on gender.
Many women in business have already experienced these dynamics.
And cultural narratives can either weaken them or reinforce them.
When women run successful franchise businesses, lead networks and mentor others, they reshape expectations about what leadership looks like. They show younger women (and younger men) that business ownership is not defined by gender. Franchising has an opportunity to lead in this space.
Because at its best, franchising is built on community and shared success.
It creates networks of owners supporting one another, learning together and growing together.
That environment can be incredibly powerful for women entering entrepreneurship.
But it also means the industry has a role to play in ensuring female leadership continues to grow rather than plateau.
Many women are not just building businesses, they are raising children at the same time.
And that means they are also shaping the next generation’s understanding of leadership, ambition and equality. When children see women running businesses, making decisions and leading teams, it becomes normal but if those same children are also consuming online content that frames women’s independence as something negative, the messages become contradictory.
That is why conversations about culture matter just as much as conversations about business.
Because the future of women in franchising (and women in business more broadly) will depend not only on opportunities available today but on the attitudes the next generation grows up with.
But it does serve as a reminder that progress should never be taken for granted. Industries like franchising have made significant strides in opening doors for female entrepreneurs. The task now is ensuring those doors continue to widen rather than slowly closing. That means continuing to support women stepping into ownership. Continuing to elevate female voices in leadership and continuing to challenge narratives that frame equality as a threat rather than an opportunity.
Because the growth of women in franchising is not just good for women. It is good for the entire business ecosystem.
And protecting that progress matters Byfor today’s entrepreneurs and for the next generation watching them.