Susan Hull Walker, founder of Ibu Movement. (Credit: Courtesy of Ibu Movement)
Bringing Women Out of the Shadows and Into a Global Marketplace
Ibu Movement founder Susan Hull Walker is helping women artisans build visible, sustainable businesses.
After years spent as a minister, Susan Hull Walker found herself searching for the voices of women in the stories she was telling from the pulpit. That search led her to the world of textiles, where she discovered that for generations, women had woven their histories, traditions and identities into cloth. In 2013, she founded Ibu Movement, a nonprofit social enterprise that helps those women artisans from around the world preserve traditions while building sustainable businesses through retail opportunities, grants, training programs and design collaborations. More than a decade after launching, Ibu continues to prove that investing in women’s craftsmanship can also create economic opportunity, cultural preservation and community leadership.
Here’s our lightly edited Q&A, from The Story Exchange 1,000+ Stories Project.
How is your business different from others in your industry?
We provide women artisans with a platform to sell their goods, but also provide design collaboration, grants for workspaces, equipment and training. We help artisans genuinely scale their enterprises.
Tell us about your biggest success so far.
We’re still here after 13 years. That itself is a success. I am proud of our Bank of America Spring Board, which serves a cohort of ten artisan leaders each year to scale their business. Our grant program has helped to start a luxury store in Islamabad which supports women artisans, and additionally helped to provide emergency relief during the pandemic, which kept many groups alive. Our main program has also helped connect young women in the Yucatan with elders who teach them ancient techniques on the back-strap loom.
What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it?
Sales are always the end game. It’s what the women need and request most – but retail is a challenge. We have responded in three ways: An active website and social media presence for sales and story-telling; a brick and mortar store in Charleston, South Carolina; and trunk shows and events around the country to broaden our audience.
Have you experienced any significant personal situations that have affected your business decisions?
I grew up in a home where my father had an extensive library on the top floor. There, he researched and wrote his work as a theologian. Downstairs in the basement, my mother had a sewing room – without windows or income. I followed my father’s path in many ways. Yet I wanted to bring my mother out of the basement and to bring my father down out of his lair to see her value and worth.
By the time I started my business, they both had died. But my work with other women who are invisible, sidelined and unpaid in their communities became my own way of bringing my mother into the light.
How do you find inspiration on your darkest days?
Everything I have done with my business has been driven by an internal vision. I return to that vision, and source the strength of the next step by staying true to it.
What is your biggest tip for other startup entrepreneurs?
Follow your passion and know your goals. I want women to have the means, the respect and the recognition not only to support themselves and their families, but to rise into leadership in their communities. We need their voices, their know-how, their ambition and resilience in the world – now more than ever.
What is your go-to song to get motivated on tough days?
“Into the Mystic” by Van Morrison.
Who is your most important role model?
I have amazing brand ambassadors, like actress Ali MacGraw and media executive Pat Mitchell — who I so admire. But the role I have created for myself is unique and covers so many different areas — writing, speaking, organizing, design, retail, fundraising, board governance — that I don’t have one singular role model to look to. Rather, I take inspiration from many.
Instagram: @IbuMovement
Facebook: @IbuMovement
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