CELEBRATING WOMEN IN BUSINESS: A walking tour and reception to honor Princeton’s women business leaders was attended by, from left: Princeton Council President Michelle Pirone Lambros, Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello, Mercer County Commissioner Nina Melker, Tipple & Rose co-owners Doria Roberts and Calavino Donati, and Mercer County Commissioner Kristin McLaughlin. (Photo courtesy of Experience Princeton)

By Anne Levin

At the March 23 meeting of Princeton Council, Mayor Mark Freda made a formal proclamation recognizing March as Women’s History Month, and recognizing the town’s more than 80 businesses led by women.

Following up on the theme, the nonprofit Experience Princeton led a walking tour of some of these businesses on Monday, March 30. The group started at Jammin’ Crepes on one end of Nassau Street, and wound up with a reception at Tipple & Rose, several blocks down. In attendance, along with many business owners, were New Jersey Lieut. Gov. Dale Caldwell, Assemblywomen Verlina-Reynolds Jackson and Michelle Drulis, Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello, and Mercer County Commissioners Kristin McLaughlin and Nina Melker.

The group made 10 stops including Orvana Collection, Miya Table & Home, the bent spoon, Small World Coffee (Nassau Street), and Ficus Restaurant before settling in at Tipple & Rose for afternoon tea, during which Stephanie Schwartz, curator of collections and research at the Historical Society of Princeton, gave a presentation on women in Princeton’s history.

Prior to the presentation, Experience Princeton Executive Director Robin Lapidus welcomed the participants. The event, which was her idea, is “a tradition we want to continue,” Lapidus said. While praising the town’s efforts to promote business, “we need to be adding to our entrepreneurial ecosystem,” she added.

Council President Michelle Pirone Lambros, who is the municipality’s liaison to Experience Princeton, also made remarks. “Over 40 percent of businesses nationwide are owned by women and are one of the fastest-growing parts of our economy,” she said. “It makes sense. Business ownership empowers women, and gives us the ability to create something. Being entrepreneurial fits women’s natural abilities of collaboration, creativity, and leadership. It makes sense that we gravitate to be small business entrepreneurs.”

Schwartz’s presentation was drawn from the Historical Society of Princeton’s 2020 program honoring the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote. Of the 40 women profiled as part of that program (available on princetonhistory.org), she talked about nearly half of them before running out of time.

Among those included were Annis Boudinot Stockton, Sarah Clarke and [enslaved] Susannah, Josephine Ward Thompson Swann, the Evelyn College for Women, Sarah Sergeant Miller, Betsey Stockton, Mary Margaret Fine, Bessie Grown Mention, Frances Folsom Cleveland, Barbara Boggs Sigmund, Mary B. Moss, Christine Moore Howell, Lucy Toto, and Dr. Jeanette Munro.

Lambros thanked the women for attending before concluding the event. “What really stands out isn’t just the businesses themselves,” she said, “it’s what you create around those businesses. You create places where people connect, and meet, where people feel welcome. You support local organizations, you show up for the community, and you help make Princeton feel the way it does.”