Consisting of one global report and six country-specific companion studies, this research sheds light on the growing role that social enterprise plays in support of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Also included below is a case study from Kenya called Accelerating Women's Employability Through Social Entrepreneurship. This empirical study, undertaken by British Council in Kenya in 2019 as part of the Enhancing Employability for Urban Youth Programme, provided insights on the state of social entrepreneurship in Mombasa County.
Activist to entrepreneur: the role of social enterprise in supporting women's empowerment
The global report finds that social enterprises create proportionally more jobs for women than other sectors of the economy and that in all but one of these countries they provide more leadership opportunities for women too. It also finds that social enterprise is being used to generate funding for women’s rights organisations, deliver training for women and create economic empowerment for women through micro-entrepreneurship.
However, it notes that social enterprises reflect the gender inequalities in wider society, and that women social entrepreneurs earn less than their male counterparts. The report offers recommendations to maximise the impact of social entrepreneurship in advancing gender equality.
The global report draws on research in Brazil, India, Pakistan, the UK and USA, and each of these countries is covered in one of the below companion studies. A companion study of Ghana was subsequently added to the collection in 2019.
Activist to entrepreneur: the role of social enterprise in supporting women's empowerment (Adobe PDF 1.55MB)