In 1963, after she was passed up yet again for a promotion in favor of a male colleague, Mary Kay Ash left her job. Sitting at her kitchen table, she made two lists: one, of all the positive traits of companies she had worked for over the years, and the other, of all the areas that needed improvement. With this knowledge, only $5,000 in savings, and the support of her son Richard, she opened Beauty By Mary Kay in Dallas, Texas. With a small 500-square-foot storefront, Beauty By Mary Kay’s nine original independent beauty consultants set out to change the world.

As her business expanded, so did Mary Kay’s awareness of the challenges facing her female workforce. For her, “P&L” had always stood for more than “profit and loss”; it also represented her business ethics of “People and Love.” Even as she grew into one of the world’s leading female entrepreneurs, Mary Kay was committed to having a personal relationship with her sales force, whose members she often referred to as her “daughters.” She began inviting these women into her home, met their families and mentored them. Mary Kay became passionate about two issues many of them faced: cancer and domestic violence. Realizing that not every woman felt safe in her own home, and frustrated that cancer care was not widely accessible to the masses, she dedicated herself to these two causes.

Today, these issues remain epidemics. In the United States, domestic violence will affect 1 in 4 women over their lifetimes. Just let that statistic sink in: 1 in 4. That represents women who are our neighbors, coworkers, friends, sisters and more. Domestic violence does not discriminate by race, age or socioeconomic status.

Read the full article by Anne Crews on Washington Monthly