“How do you take the recipe that your grandmother gave you in Ecuador that everybody in the neighborhood loves, and figure out how to sell that on Etsy?” asks Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen.

That critical path from idea to success is where New York City is hoping to take 5,000 women from underserved communities in the next three years. Glen announced the new initiative, Women Entrepreneurs NYC, dubbed WE NYC, on Thursday. It will offer free training and business services–including loan negotiation workshops, connections to capital, pro-bono legal assistance, and navigating government resources–for aspiring entrepreneurs.

The program is a collaboration between the city’s Department of Small Business Services (SBS) and Citi, which is providing more than $425,000 for programs designed to help New York City Housing Authority residents interested in launching their own businesses. WE NYC is also partnering with Goldman Sachs’s 10,000 Small Businesses program, which will educate aspiring entrepreneurs on accessing capital, and microlender Grameen America, which will provide further business-building services. LaGuardia Community College will offer intensive classes on entrepreneurship to prepare women for success in the marketplace.

According to a report by New York Women’s Foundation and Citi, 25% of the four million women and girls living in NYC are “economically vulnerable,” which is exactly why this initiative is focused on poorer communities, says Glen.

“I think there’s really been a very strong debate and issue raised nationally, led by Sheryl Sandberg and others, about breaking the glass ceiling on Wall Street and corporate America,” she tells Fast Company. Glen points out that there are many women who can’t relate to the problems in climbing a corporate ladder or seeking startup funding because they are struggling to make ends meet. She argues that these women “have terrific ideas, are really creative, (and) could be the next great entrepreneur, but are really struggling with how to break into business. . . . I really want to use the city’s platform to address those issues head-on.”

Glen continues: “For us, it’s really exciting to have the city of New York, for the first time, take a look at all of the different opportunities and challenges that entrepreneurs face, and put a gender lens on it. . . . The fact that women-owned businesses are growing so fast means that we know there are really smart, hungry, ambitious women out there, so we don’t have a talent or a drive problem. The problem is somewhere else in the widget. Something else is not working. There’s a market failure, and this is where government should and can intervene and have the highest impact.”

I think of my own challenges, struggling to be taken seriously, and issues of balance and work and family, and I think, Wow, I’m an incredibly overeducated, privileged white woman.

Being a woman who comes from typically male-dominated industries–real estate, banking, law–Glen understands the challenges associated with being the only woman in the room. Even when thinking about these challenges, Glen knows she’s still one of the more fortunate ones.