Financial – Getting funding, being sustainable Interviews with social enterprises suggested that financial constraints are one of the key challenges to their work. Some social enterprises mentioned the need for funding to cover core expenses such as salaries. However, attracting…
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Methods: The social enterprises in our study shared several methods used to measure the impact of their gender empowerment practices. These include: Case studies: Make use of narratives of how the women have ‘moved on with my life, what do…
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Social enterprises described a set of practices that support the empowerment of their women employees and women beneficiaries. Using the UN definition of gender empowerment, we group the practices into five groups. Practice 1. What did social enterprises do to…
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How did social enterprises build women’s self-worth and self-belief? Offer counselling and emotional support Social enterprises we interviewed provided counselling and emotional support by listening to ‘previously silenced voices’ of women beneficiaries. As one social enterprise shared: ‘the women that…
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Social enterprises are businesses committed to social justice – working to address the social and environmental challenges we face. In a world dominated by gender inequality, many are working to empower women – creating jobs, opening up opportunities and tackling…
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What did social enterprises do to provide women with the right to have and to determine choices? Coaching and mentoring (C&M): Coaching and mentoring are development approaches based on the use of one-to-one conversations to enhance an individual’s skills, knowledge…
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What did social enterprises do to enable women gain access to opportunities and resources? Training and upskilling (to increase the prospect of employment) Social enterprises provided various training opportunities for women to develop their competencies. As a social enterprise shared: ‘we…
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What did social enterprises do to expand women’s control their own lives, both within and outside the home? Participation in social enterprise decision making Social enterprises provide women beneficiaries with opportunities to participate in and contribute to organisational decision-making process….
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What did social enterprises do to influence the direction of social change, to create a more just social and economic order, nationally and internationally? Social enterprises supporting women to become leaders and community activists Social enterprises supported women who wanted…
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Gender: characteristics of men and women which are socially constructed e.g. how men and women should behave, the different roles men and women have, what men and women are entitled to. Gender is not the same as sex, which refers…
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