The Nation Newspaper

Category: Women in Action

  • Pedal Power

    Pedal Power

    In Bangladesh, even the most remote rural areas benefit from information technology, thanks to an innovative concept favouring entrepreneurship over charity.

    By Shagufe Hossain for The Daily Star

    Sometimes, you have to take the mountain to Mohammed. Just ask iSocial, a groundbreaking programme that involves entrepreneurs delivering vital information and services to isolated communities throughout Bangladesh. In a gender-defying feat, the entrepreneurs are tech-savvy young women—who travel on bicycles.

    The programme’s roots go back to 2004, when Dnet, a nonprofit that uses information and communication technology for economic development, set up several Rural Information Centres. Villagers had to make their way to the centres, leading organisers to wonder: Why not save them the trip? The idea for “Mobile Ladies” was born: Women with cell phones began going village to village on bicycles, disseminating information, gathering questions and giving answers.

    Meanwhile, information technology was spreading throughout the world but largely bypassing Bangladesh—even today, only 38 percent of the population has internet access. So in 2008, the Mobile Ladies became Infoladies. Armed with smart phones, laptops, digital cameras and USB sticks, they give people in rural areas the opportunity to connect with the world. They also dish out advice on health and agriculture, and help villagers access government entitlements.

    The Infoladies are not employees, they are entrepreneurs who receive fees in exchange for their efforts. All hail from poor backgrounds but have up to 12 years of education; they are selected for their learning ability, communications skills and entrepreneurial spirit. iSocial provides training, but the women must invest in their own equipment and run their own business.

    Known as the Infolady Social Enterprise Limited, the initiative was rebranded earlier this year as iSocial, and the Infoladies became Kallyanis. As of this past spring, there were 60 Kallyanis bringing technology to 16 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts. To date, they have reached some 450,000 villagers. It is impossible to say who benefits most—the Kallyanis, the villagers or society at large.

    This win-win-win is movingly illustrated on the iSocial website, which includes a video relating the experience of 26-year-old Moni, who became an Infolady in 2010. Her story begins in the early morning, as family members begin to emerge from their small house onto the dirt courtyard. Moni feeds the chickens and tends to a pot cooking over an open fire; her husband, a carpenter, brushes his teeth at the water pump. The improbable sight of a solar panel on the corrugated tin roof hints at Moni’s profession: A reliable source of electricity is essential to power the equipment she uses for her work.

    She finishes her chores and gets ready for her workday, wheeling out her bicycle—a mode of transportation typically reserved for men. She pedals off into the countryside, her fuschia scarf floating above her green Kallyani tunic; a white baseball cap and an umbrella further identify her to villagers as an iSocial worker. Tied to the bike rack is a black bag carrying the tools of her trade: a smart phone and other electronics as well as various medical devices.

    Although it was at first difficult to win the villagers’ acceptance, they are now always delighted to see her. In a typical day, she might connect a wife to a husband or brother or son working overseas via Skype, help someone browse the internet or snap a family photo that she emails to relatives. She also carries devices that allow her to test blood pressure, measure glucose or albumin levels, and give pregnancy tests. She emails the results to medical clinics, saving villagers long trips that keep them from their work.

    In this conservative society, a man would never gain this kind of access to villagers. Many women won’t discuss their health problems with their own husband, let alone another man, and many will not travel to get the services they need.

    During the course of the day, Moni also holds meetings of the various groups she has formed. Each week, she has new presentations for children, teens, senior citizens, homemakers, laborers and farmers. The content for the sessions is provided by the centre, which also teaches Kallyanis how to form and lead the groups.

    Moni acknowledges that her work would be impossible without the centre’s training and support. While she must purchase all her equipment—from bike to laptop to glucose monitor—she can source everything from the centre, which arranges advantageous bank loans. They also assist with another important source of revenue: commissions on product sales. Kallyanis sell items provided by the centre (seeds, folic acid, sanitary napkins, shampoo, cosmetics) to villagers, and purchase villagers’ goods for resale at the centre.

    Kallyanis are typically 18 to 35 years old and can earn from $60 to $260 per month—more than the average male farmer. A proud Moni echoes entrepreneurs the world over when she said, “Everything is my investment, my labour, my qualifications, my time. So I don’t have to share my earnings with anyone. Whatever I earn, whether it is more or less, it belongs to me.”

    The innovative iSocial model has won several prestigious awards, but the programme’s directors know that as society and technology continue to evolve, iSocial must evolve right along with them. They are nonetheless convinced that the concept has matured to the point where it is ready to be rolled out on a much larger scale, nationally and even internationally. For now though, the goal is to have “one Kallyani in every community in Bangladesh” by the year 2020.

    http://dnet.org.bd/page/infolady

  • Valuing Women ’s Work and Activism

    Valuing Women ’s Work and Activism

    Zohra Moosa, Executive Director, Mama Cash

    Women work hard. All day long, they are busy caring for others, creating new knowledge and ideas, solving problems, building our world, and contributing to our economies and societies in endless ways.

    Yet so much of this labour is undervalued and poorly paid. Think of the millions of domestic workers putting in long hours without job security, garment workers in exploitative sweatshops, sex workers whose work is criminalised, and informal sector workers whose work is invisible and unregulated. Patriarchal norms that devalue both women and their labour mean that the work women do, work that is necessary for our survival, is often not even seen as ‘real’ work.

    The devaluing of women’s labour is compounded by other economic injustices: in too many communities around the world, women are denied the right to inherit money or property, or to own land, amounting to a systematic transfer of assets from women to men, generation after generation. Women are also denied access to credit, to bank accounts and to financial and other literacies that would enable them to understand and make use of current economic systems. Meanwhile, the communal land and natural resources that rural and Indigenous women depend on for their livelihoods and to which they are entitled are being stolen by private corporations and complicit governments.

    The cumulative effect of these injustices is that women are denied access to the power and resources— like money and property, but also information about how economic and financial systems work—that make a dignified, self-determined life possible.

    At Mama Cash, we know that feminist activists who are taking on systemic injustices face formidable challenges. Changing deeply-rooted social norms that devalue domestic and care work, challenging factory owners that harass and fire worker activists, standing up to corporations that hire private militias to protect their interests – this is dangerous, sometimes deadly, work.

    In March 2016, feminist and environmental activist, Berta Cáceres, was murdered in Honduras. Cáceres had spent years organising her indigenous Lenca community to defend their ancestral lands against local and transnational corporations operating to exploit their territories. Cáceres was murdered because her organisation, COPINH, had been effective in stalling the construction of the Agua Zarca mega-dam.

    Indeed, women are organising worldwide, demanding their rights and not backing down in the face of repression. At Mama Cash, we support economic justice for women by putting resources directly into the hands of activists. Where others devalue them and their labour, we champion them. We do this because we know their hard work is paying off.

    Since 1983, Mama Cash has provided funding and capacity support to self-led feminist groups that are organising to secure their human rights. Over thirty years of resourcing this work has taught us that feminist activism works and that collective action is the key.

    In Pakistan’s Sindh province, the Home Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF), a Mama Cash grantee-partner, has fought for years to secure home-based workers’ labour rights. Almost 80 percent of an estimated 12 million Pakistani home-based workers are women; these ‘invisible’ workers often spend ten hours a day making garments, bangles and other accessories at home. In December 2016, through HBWWF’s work, home-based workers won their fight to receive legal recognition as workers. They can now register to access benefits, a victory in itself, and one that sets the stage for putting home-based workers’ rights on agendas in other parts of Pakistan.

    Women and Land in Zimbabwe (WLZ), another Mama Cash grantee-partner, is a women’s organisation that addresses unequal control over land and natural resources. Nearly 80 percent of Zimbabwe’s population is rural, with women cultivating an estimated 60-80 percent of agricultural output. WLZ supports women to lobby traditional leaders and local authorities to ensure equitable access to land. In recent years, WLZ has grown dramatically, from 2,000 to approximately 10,000 members, increasing women’s awareness of their land rights and the number of women owning and controlling land.

    Victories and advances like these inspire me, and I never tire of hearing about them. Indeed, they drive me to do my work at Mama Cash, helping us to play our role in bigger social change processes, including achieving economic justice for all. Our special role is to mobilise and move resources towards the visionary feminist activists and movements around the world that every day, with creativity and courage, are building a more just future for women—for all of us—worldwide.

    https://www.mamacash.org/en/en-homepage

  • Highlighting Female Entrepreneurs

    Highlighting Female Entrepreneurs

    Three questions to company founder Emilie Hawlena—creator of the network Genuine Women which aims to create synergies between women launching their own businesses.

    by Laurence Bézaguet for Tribune de Genève

    33-year-old Emilie Hawlena wants to create synergies between women who share an entrepreneurial spirit, to help them break into the complex, exciting and sometimes hostile arena that is starting one’s own business.

    Why create a new women’s network?

    After having left my native Belgium ten years ago, and moving to Geneva to work in banking, which no longer felt right for me, I decided I wanted to develop the entrepreneur inside me.

    The road to fulfilling my aspiration has led me to the role of connecting and promoting dynamic, creative and genuine women entrepreneurs. I can feel a real momentum building, among a significant number of talented women out there who are ready to realise their potential. I hope to be able to set up something that will capture this momentum and take the business projects of these creative and passionate women further.

    It’s now been three months since the launch of Genuine Women, and the initiative seems to be on the right track because we’re now close to 100 members. From yoga instructor to winemaker, to event organiser… And we don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. We recently expanded our network to Lausanne in May 2017 and are planning to open in other districts in 2018: In Neuchâtel in February, Friborg in May and Valais for September.

    Our main mission is to unite French-speaking Switzerland, the message behind the network is therefore in keeping “together, we are stronger and we go further.” Each district’s network will be represented by an ambassador who will assist in the their network’s development and the implementation of these new ideas (partners, events, workshops etc). Of course, we will also organise national events to ensure that networks throughout the country mix.

    What are your winning tactics for achieving your goals?

    First and foremost, I intend to bring people together, by consolidating a community of women entrepreneurs who are in solidarity with each other, and which enables them to discuss their experiences together, and create collaborations and synergies. I’m convinced that together we are stronger and can go further! Secondly, I want to offer the members of Genuine Women stronger visibility for their initiatives, through a website that showcases their work.

    Each woman has her own page which puts the spotlight on her project and allows her to be contacted directly. Finally, I plan to support these female entrepreneurs; or aspiring entrepreneurs, in the development of their activities. Hopefully soon I’ll have a radio show so I can present listeners with one of the women entrepreneurs’ projects each week. Another dream I’m working on is to produce a free quarterly magazine that would feature profiles of the women who are part of Genuine, along with reports on the collaborations they are building and other news from our network.

    Strong ambitions

    More and more of us are starting our own ventures. While entrepreneurship can be a thrilling experience, it’s not always easy and at times it can be a very lonely journey. With these issues in mind, I offer workshops that include talks from speakers, conferences and certain benefits that can help eager women entrepreneurs, and make their lives easier.

    We also organise frequent meet-ups between members, whether for breakfast, lunch or an aperitif, depending on our schedules. Among these meet-ups, we hold a monthly ‘Rescue drink’, that gives the Genuine members the chance to network over a drink in an informal and relaxed environment, as if they were at home. Not forgetting the ‘Ladies’ Fu*k-up Night’, where each of the women tells the others how she’s managed to bounce back from her failures. After all, outside the network, nights out are still open to men too.

    https://www.genuinewomen.ch/

  • A Flourishing Future for the Refugee Women of London

    A Flourishing Future for the Refugee Women of London

    By David Lewis for Sparknews

    Across the UK and Europe at large, the widespread exclusion of refugees from the skilled labour market is both a societal and economic failure. Despite often being highly educated and qualified refugees, notably women, are more likely to experience poverty and deprivation than their British counterparts. Social isolation, lack of confidence, and widespread discrimination against their overseas work and qualifications results in women being sidelined from the labour market.

    In response to such social issues, one social enterprise in East London has taken it in to their own hands to use floristry to integrate some of the city’s most vulnerable migrant women into the working world.

    Founded in 2016, Bread & Roses is the brainchild of Olivia Head and Sneh Jani. Based a stone’s throw away from the hipster coffee shops and thrift stores of London’s Shoreditch neighbourhood, Bread & Roses uses floristry training to help women develop professional and life skills. Women are also provided a safe space in which to build upon their English language skills and to bolster their confidence.

    When asked what inspired the creation of the business, Head referenced feminist Rose Schneiderman’s mantra ‘The worker must have bread, but she must have roses too.’ “Her words made sense to us. We wanted to support refugee women to find work that is meaningful and fulfilling,” said Head.

    Programme participants hail from all over the globe, with alumnae literally reading an A-Z of unstable states. Often qualified in their home countries but unable to work in the UK, the women’s professional backgrounds vary. On the last course there was a former-teacher from Syria as well as a civil engineer from DR Congo.

    Salomy, a 44-year-old Ugandan exile, is a member of Bread & Roses’ recent cohort. She has struggled since arriving in London and as an asylum seeker, cannot work until her case is processed – traditionally a long and arduous undertaking. Whilst waiting she has busied herself getting prepared to enter the labour market. “Floristry is easy to learn and the skills that you pick up means that you can have an income in the future,” she said. Salomy’s flowers arrangements, along with those of other women are available for the public to buy on the Bread & Roses website.

    Salomy found that the learning environment at Bread & Roses provided her a space in which she could escape her current woes. “The course was really energising. It gave me the chance to forget my worries for a moment and just enjoy being creative,” she shared.
    Not content with having completed the course, Salomy is heading back in January to volunteer on their next programme. They might well need her – plans are afoot to increase the availability of spaces across 2018.

    So far, the organisation has helped train more than 50 women. Recruits can expect a three-month course combining floristry, English classes and employment support before heading off to a work placement in their chosen area. Some choose to put their new skills to practical use working with flowers. Others, using their improved English language and qualification skills opt for different placements such as retail, office administration or hospitality.

    Head is defiant that everyone has their role in the retraining of refugees and those who have arrived in the country with next to nothing. “I think we all have our part to play in creating an environment where refugees are able to flourish in their new home. It’s easy to look at the government and criticise them for not doing enough – it’s harder to look at yourself and ask yourself if you are doing enough.”

    And there are plenty to support. Home Office figures show there are more than 120,000 refugees in UK – less than 0.2 percent of the population – and of the 23,000 applications for asylum made in the country in 2016, 8,000 came from women. Due to a slow and log-jammed immigration system, cases can take months, years or even upwards of a decade to process leaving families in limbo.
    As Salomy faces up to a potentially long wait for her asylum application to be processed, she yearns to one day work in a floristry department in her adopted land. “I am a designer by nature. I am an artist. Being creative is part of me and I hope that one day I can express this in my work.”

    http://www.wearebreadandroses.com/

  • Planting the Seeds for a Brighter Future

    Planting the Seeds for a Brighter Future

    In Senegal, urban women are turning towards micro gardening to bolster family income and fight malnutrition.

    By Idrissa SANE, Le Soleil

    Wafts of fresh mint pass through the sticky air, the ground is littered with cut-off bottles from which other aromatic herbs peek out, zigzagging tables laden with plant pots lead up to a building covered in hanging containers—all sprouting luscious greenness.

    This building is Centre d’écoute et d’encadrement pour le développement durable (Centre for Support and Training in Sustainable Development), more commonly known as Ceedd. The centre, founded in 2005 in the city of Thies, seventy kilometres east of the capital Dakar, provides microcredit and training in micro gardening to women from deprived urban settlements.

    Life in Senegal can be tough for women. Deep-rooted traditions and limited financial resources mean that only 57 percent of young girls successfully make the transition from primary to secondary school, resulting in elevated levels of adult illiteracy amongst women. Upon entering adulthood, the strains of family life compounded with a low-level of education mean that, according to the United Nations, approximately 80 percent of the country’s active women work in the informal sector.

    President of Ceedd, Oumy Seck Ndiaye, explained that the centre’s micro gardening programmes respond to malnutrition and urban poverty in the area. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation defines micro gardening—practiced in urban spaces—as, “the intensive cultivation of a wide range of vegetables, roots and tubers, and herbs in small spaces.” Just like the space at Ceedd, micro gardens are designed to be highly productive and easy to manage. Here, more than 360 women grow lettuce, cabbage, okra, aubergines and basil. Women use this produce to nourish their families and the excess is sold at markets or in the local community. Every woman grows a different type of crop, “They do not grow the same varieties as one another, meaning they then exchange and trade,” said Ndiaye.

    The centre is staffed with a dozen or so employees and volunteers from both Senegal and Europe who train the women in these gardening techniques. Ceedd uses a growing system inspired by hydroponics. Tables or ‘micro gardens’ are covered in trays of organic soil and polystyrene, plant roots are then placed in the sodden polystyrene, and the surrounding soil is covered in gravel to protect it from the sun and to retain moisture.

    Today, the centre can see that this initiative has begun to bear fruit. Ceedd has been awarded both national and international prizes. It has diversified its activities, now offering training in artisanal production and microfinance, and much needed education and health services to the community, these include HIV testing, access to contraception, home medical visit and vaccinations. The Ceedd team, looking to further empower their women economically, have opened up into the field of processing and commercialisation. “We are training women in conservation and processing methods for their fresh produce. We have made aubergine preserve, honey and lemon cordials and hibiscus and monkey-bread juices” said Ndiaye. The centre has the support of local collectives in Thies as well as in France where these conserved goods are sold—securing another source of income for the women.

    The beneficiaries of the project don’t put all their eggs in one basket. If the yield is disappointing, or they cannot sell all of their produce, they can rely on a revolving credit system. “The women are required to contribute a monthly fee of 1 500 CFA (2 euros) so that every month one of the them can borrow 60 000 CFA (80 euros), to be reimbursed after six months,” said the president. This informal money lending system, called Susu, is practised across much of Africa and the Caribbean.

    Despite having flourished, Ceedd may soon face testing times. Like in much of Africa, Senegal is experiencing rapid climate change and urbanisation. Failing harvests and unemployment have driven 40 percent of the nation’s population to urban areas just like Thies. Urban property and land speculation is rife, potentially placing these women’s agricultural gardens under threat.

    For the time being it is clear that thanks to the multiple programmes on offer at Ceedd, life has blossomed for the women of Thies. Now able to financially support and nourish their children, these green-fingered mothers remain optimistic about their futures.

    http://www.ceedd.org/

  • Taking the Driver’s Seat

    Taking the Driver’s Seat

    A Mumbai cab service helps disadvantaged women take control of their lives.

     By Shubha Sharma for The Hindu, Mumbai.

    Manisha Malvade was 21 when her mother died of cancer. “Mother’s death shook me,” she said. “But I had to help my family survive.” Her father, alcoholic and unemployed, was of no help. It fell solely upon her to support her five other siblings.

    At her part-time job at a shopping complex, a colleague advised her to learn to drive. For three months, she shuttled between her home in the Mumbai suburb of Kurla and a driving school in neighbouring Chembur.

    For the past seven years, she has been driving for Priyadarshini Taxi Service, an all-woman company. In a good month, she earns up to ₹30,000 (about US $470). This has enabled her to provide not only the basics but to also put her younger siblings through school and college.

    Women like Malavade are why Priyadarshini exists, said founder Susieben Shah. Since 1989, Shah has also been president of Stree Shakti Kendra, where she implements government programmes for the economically disadvantaged. In the course of her work, she has met women who single-handedly run entire households. They have great self-confidence and want to do something on their own but lack a platform and a mentor.

    In response Shah started Priyadarshini, founded in the chawls [tenements] and slums of Mumbai, India’s financial capital in 2011 with 15 cars; today, the company owns 50 and hopes to double that number soon. Most of the women who come to Priyadarshini are widows or single mothers “with a hunger to succeed,” said Shah. The company asks for only a ₹1,000 (US $15) deposit and that the women pay their drivers licence fees and commit to working 28 days a month.

    Training starts with the basics: driving lessons, car maintenance, emergency skills, self-defence, accounting, communication and etiquette. They also learn yoga to help handle the stress of driving up to 12 hours a day. All this is free; a few charitable trusts support the training, which costs up to ₹12,000 (US $185) per person.

    Driver’s Seat
    Women taxi drivers poses for a photograph at domestic Airport,Vile Parle in Mumbai on Thursday. Photo : Fariha Farooqui

    Once they “graduate” and are out on the road, drivers pay the company ₹850 (US $13) a day and keep the rest of what they make. “We’re flexible about it,” said business relations manager Jeel Hade. “We understand that it may not be possible to earn that much every day.”

    Coming even this far hasn’t been easy. While women are increasingly taking the wheel in India’s cities and towns, women taxi drivers are still a rare sight, as driving is not considered a “feminine” occupation. Shah said that in the early days, male drivers looked down on Priyadarshini’s drivers. “They would say, ‘women are a challenge to our bread and butter.’” Worse, men in the drivers’ families would sometimes take the cars to run their own transport businesses. Priyadarshini now avoids that by owning all the cars.

    These days, Shah’s biggest concern is staying afloat financially. Priyadarshini takes care of maintenance, and wear-and-tear is high—inevitable given the state of Mumbai’s roads. And auto loan payments must be made on time; lenders aren’t sympathetic about delays.

    Attracting investors has been another challenge. Shah, who has been funding the company through profits diverted from an export house she also runs, said she can’t fathom why backers aren’t lining up at the door. “Unlike NGOs, our results are tangible. We are a profit-making company. But they want scalability and an exit clause.” She is nevertheless determined to find new investors and is confident that in two years, Priyadarshini will have spread throughout India. “I’m not giving up yet,” she said.

    For the drivers, giving up is even less of an option.

    Malvade is now married with a one-year-old son, and her in-laws haven’t demanded she quit—which is often the case after a young Indian woman marries. In fact, they support her, with her mother-in-law looking after the baby while she puts in those 12-hour days. “My life has changed completely. I feel no less capable than a man.”

    There have been real challenges, but she has tackled them all with drive and determination. For instance, Mumbai’s black-and-yellow taxi drivers shoo her out of taxi stands and mock her — “Stay home!” “What do you know of driving?” — but she ignores them. A passenger refuses to pay? She calls the police. There was a driver who kept overtaking and blocking her, so she cut him off, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and slapped him hard. She hasn’t yet needed to use the pepper spray that Priyadarshini puts in all the cabs. “The company tells us that if we’re afraid, we won’t be able to drive. And I love to drive, I’m good at it,” said Malvade. “But why believe me? All my customers say I’m a great driver!”

    Shah and the 200 women trained by Priyadarshini cabs know they are doing more than simply driving cars—they are challenging stereotypes and asserting their financial and social independence. As they forge this new path, they are also making travel safer for other women.

    http://www.priyadarshinitaxi.com/

     

     

     

     

  • Women in innovation: There is Still Room for Progress

    Women in innovation: There is Still Room for Progress

    France may be the European capital for women’s entrepreneurship, but women still have a long way to go in matching their male counterparts. Multiple initiatives are offering a source of encouragement.

    Caroline de MALET, Le Figaro (France)

    At the end of August 2017, an article in the French economics and business magazine Capital hit like a bombshell. This special edition, dedicated to French start-ups, didn’t go unnoticed. Not a single female was among the line-up of highly promising entrepreneurs; those with the potential to make it among the heavyweights at international level. Social media had a field day with the story, creating a buzz that was spurred on by feminist associations, amongst a chorus of angry jeers.

    Delphine Rémy-Boutang, founder of digital agency The Bureau and of the Journée de la Femme Digitale (Digital Women’s Day), didn’t take long to respond. Fourteen French women entrepreneurs posed together for the weekly business magazine Challenges, under the headline, “Female start-up founders fight back.” They quickly struck again with a second group photo, this time featuring 80 women innovators on the steps of the Bourse de Paris (the city’s stock exchange), published by the specialist innovation site FrenchWeb.

    The story is significant in revealing the place the so-called “weaker sex” is assigned on the innovation scene, and France is far from being exceptional. Recently, two American female entrepreneurs, Kate Dwyer and Penelope Gazing, co-founders of e-commerce marketplace Witchsy, revealed that they had had to create a fictional male co-founder to ensure that their ideas were taken seriously.

    A study made by Harvard Business Review also speaks volumes. Over a two-year period, investors’ conversations were recorded in different countries. In Sweden—a country considered to be among the most progressive in the world—a young man was almost systematically presented as being “young but promising” whereas a woman in the same position was labelled “young and inexperienced”.

    Paris, European capital of female entrepreneurship

    According to the 2015 Global Start-up Ecosystem Ranking by Compass, women make up only 8 percent of those at the head of start-ups in France. It’s not a lot, even if the proportion is much higher in Paris (21 percent), which makes the city the European capital of female entrepreneurship (the European average stands at 17 percent). Real progress is being made, but slowly: when Caroline Ramade founded the female business incubator Paris Pionnières twelve years ago, the figures were no higher than 2 percent and 5 percent respectively.

    “The world of innovation; presented as being ahead of its time, actually encounters the same difficulties as other sectors”, Ramade said. “We need to acknowledge the fact that women represent just 8 percent of investors, and those who are in the profession tend to behave like men,” Ramade added. While female founders of start-up companies tend not to have too much trouble in launching their first funding round, things become more complicated afterwards, notably when they start planning to get listed on the stock exchange.

    69 percent of young female graduates want to start their own businesses

    Initiatives are popping up to encourage female innovation. Delphine Rémy-Boutang recently launched the JFD Connect Club; the first networking club solely for women in digital. Another such initiative is the Business With Attitude/Madame Figaro Prize, whose first editing in March 2017 accompanied six start-up founders. Claude Tresoir, founder of Magic Makers, which carries out computer coding workshops for children was crowned the winner.

    As 69 percent of young women aspire to be entrepreneurs business schools have woken up to this trend and are starting to launch female entrepreneurship programmes, following the example set by ESSEC Business School here in France.

    Women are very active in the domain of social innovation

    One problem remains: a lack of female role models. GAFA’s top-level women, like Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, are so powerful that young girls struggle to identify with them. Yet whilst women are under-represented in tech innovation (with the exception of artificial intelligence), they are very active in developing innovation in the environmental and social solidarity fields. Pioneers include Joséphine Goube (Techfugees) and Judith Aquien (Thot), committed to helping refugees, Charlotte de Vilmorin (Wheeliz, disabilities), Juliette Franquet (Love your waste, recycling).

    Other female figures are stepping into the spotlight, such as Camille Rumani, co-founder of VizEat; one of top three on the App Store in 2016. Apple boss, Tom Cook even dined with the founder in her home during his visit to Paris in February 2017 thanks to the app. Marie-Vorgan Le Barzic, CEO of Numa Paris; a start-up incubator born out of ‘Silicon Sentier,’ has established herself as a leading figure on the start-up scene. More and more women are starting to gain prominence thanks to their success: Rania Belkahia, founder of Afrimarket, Fanny Péchiodat, co-founder of MyLittleParis, or, among the younger innovators, Léonore de Roquefeuil, CEO of the platform Voxe.org—which was a finalist in the Google Impact Challenge France 2015—and Marjolaine Grondin, CEO of HelloJam. A smooth handover to the next generation of women looks guaranteed.

  • Promoting ‘Faso Dan Fani’: Burkina Faso’s ‘woven cloth of the homeland’

    Promoting ‘Faso Dan Fani’: Burkina Faso’s ‘woven cloth of the homeland’

    Elisabeth Delma, a master of the tradition
    By Abdoulaye TAO for L’Economiste du Faso

    It’s in the northern outskirts of Ouagadougou, in Tampouy, that we met up with Elisabeth Delma, founder of the Adaja Centre. Despite her discretion and modesty when speaking about her work, Delma; a woman well into her sixties, is a key figure in the development and promotion of Faso Dan Fani (attire from traditional handwoven cotton cloth).

    It was over forty years ago that this mother of seven children decided to use her knowledge as a weaver to serve her community, and above all its most vulnerable population: women from impoverished households.

    “At the beginning, I used to weave alone, and the little that I earned, I shared with women in need from my neighbourhood. And then one day I said to myself, ‘Why not teach this craft to these women in need, so that they too can make a bit of money?’.”

    That’s how the Adaja (‘embroidered life’ in Hebrew) Centre was born. But it wasn’t easy, as Delma explained. “The idea was met with reluctance at first and I had to be very patient in order to convince the first female apprentices to take the plunge in learning how to weave.” It was when the first learners started to make some money from their products that suddenly the idea took hold and began to attract other women from the neighborhood.

    Since that moment, Delma’s workshop has never been empty. She now trains a group of around 20 women every three years. She doesn’t know exactly how many women have been trained at her workshops over all these years, at no cost to them. The Adaja Centre’s founder remembers that at the time of the 1984 Revolution in Burkina Faso, during which traditional Faso Dan Fani attire was made official, she trained several hundred apprentices.

    In addition to teaching these women a trade, she has also helped some of them to set up their own businesses. During the training period, the women are given an allowance (between 700 and 2,500 FCFA, or one and four euros) for each strip of cloth, and part of the profit from their work is put aside to be used to help them set up at the end of the training period. Delma is so proud of these women, who are now autonomous: “Thanks to this craft, many of the women have been able to buy a plot of land, send their children to school and branch out into other types of work that bring in an income. I did all this because we must love our neighbours, and above all help them to build a better life for themselves when we can. Forty years ago, where this centre now stands, there was only scrubland. There was very little salaried work for the men, and agriculture only offered seasonal work. There was a need for other means of survival, to help the women.”

    While the outlook seemed bleak, Delma had within her the potential to become a formidable manager. It was essential to find a way to continue helping these women. The centre receives orders from businesses and couturiers. The weavers, who have been taught at her school, make the products, and Delma helps them to put their woven cloth on the market. According to Elienai Diendéré, the founder’s daughter and manager of the centre, around forty other women who are independent weavers receive orders from the centre, which “provides them with raw materials (and often the material itself) so that they don’t have to pay out large sums of money upfront”. The strips of cotton cloth that they weave are bought by the centre for between 2,500 and 5,000 FCFA, (four and eight euros).

    During our visit, only a few women were at work. They were working on a new weaving technique, producing very fine cloth that resembles factory-made fabric. It’s a model that’s a far cry from Burkina Faso’s traditional woven cotton cloth, known by all. The centre adapts to market demand. In fact, the centre adapts in every way. Under the guidance of Elienai Delma, the Adaja Centre is getting ready to change its face, as well as its organisation. But it will continue to uphold its original objective: to improve the economic and social condition of women.

    The demand for the centre’s woven cloth is growing, and technical demands are becoming more challenging. The centre is preparing to launch a collection of around fifty Faso Dan Fani cloths; a collection of accessories made from Faso Dan Fani, notably bags, purses, headdresses and jewelry, and if possible to complete its range of fabric.

    But above all, “the centre wants to expand its dyeing workshop so that it can produce large quantities of colored cotton thread, which currently cannot be found in Burkina Faso”. Delma’s new ambition: to make Adaja both a training centre and a Faso Dan Fani production and commercial business that is renowned in West Africa for the quality and originality of its creations.

    With this goal in mind, three investment plans are underway, each with the aim of boosting the social and economic impact of the centre’s activities. The first is to build and lay out a new production space. This space would have the capacity to host 20 weavers, a storeroom and an exhibition room where the products could be displayed. The second plan is to set up a dyeing workshop at the heart of the centre and the final one is to buy the most innovative manual weaving looms available. All of these projects need to be financed, and some goodwill wouldn’t go amiss to help continue and expand the work of this lady who, throughout her whole life, has tirelessly sought new ways to help others.

    Insert:
    Elienai tells the story of her mother
    “At the beginning, she taught women in her home and she covered all their costs.
    When her first apprentices started to make an income from their products, other local women began to take an interest and came to ask for training. As my mother was no longer able to welcome all these women into her home, she moved here and built these workshops. It’s now the centre’s headquarters. As well as the workshops, there is accommodation here so that those women who don’t have a fixed abode have a place to stay during the training period.
    Over time, she’s had to diversify and adapt to the different needs of the women. Which is why she introduced lessons on how to dry fruits, such as tomato and mango, into the training she offers. As for the weaving, she doesn’t know how many women have been trained. What we’re sure of, is that at least 200 women have stayed in contact with the centre and work with the centre when we receive orders.”

    http://www.centreadaja.org/index.php/en/

  • On a mission to stamp out stereotypes in early education

    On a mission to stamp out stereotypes in early education

    Education A new guide book is raising awareness among day nursery staff on how to avoid gender bias.

    According to the guide book for staff La poupée de Timothée et le camion de Lison (Timothy’s doll and Lison’s truck), boys tend to demand more attention from adults than girls, and to dominate in conversations.

    The findings of a study made in Swiss day care centres are enough to give you chills: if your little girl goes to day nursery, it’s very likely that she is called upon more often to put away the toys than her male playmates, given less praise when she does well and is often assigned a supportive role. Your little boy on the other hand, will have a more limited range of costumes to dress up in, will receive compliments that are especially focused on his strength – and will get more help.

    “This is about real situations that we observed during studies carried out between 2012 and 2015”, Véronique Ducret, social psychologist at the 2e Observatoire (Second Observatory); the Geneva-based Romandy Institute of Research and Training on Gender Relations explained. “We catalogued and analysed these observations in a guide book entitled La poupée de Timothée et le camion de Lison (‘Timothy’s doll and Lison’s truck’).” The goal of this colour publication, designed for day nursery professionals? To raise awareness on how children can become conditioned from a very young age through contact with adults whose behaviour reinforces stereotypes. In 2012, the 2e Observatoire had screened eleven day nurseries in Romandy, Switzerland, and already criticised the fact that girls were less often called by their first names than boys, for example. This first edition of the guide, which very quickly ran out of print, was widely distributed in day nurseries in the French-speaking part of western Switzerland. “Feedback from staff has been positive on the whole, and the findings were well received. We have already noted instances of positive change,” Ducret added.

    To provide the material for an improved, second edition of the guide, the institute analysed an additional four day nurseries; those of the University of Geneva. The conclusion: girls are now being called by their first names at least, but the problem of ensuring that girls and boys socialise and play together as equals remains. “In a given space, if we get out the pedal cars, the boys grab them straight away, and the girls are left to occupy what little space is left over. On the other hand, if the childcare assistants give the children neutral toys, all the children have fun together very easily. Coexistence can be learnt! But other gender stereotypes last longer and are harder to shake off, such as the tendency to judge little girls based on their appearance,” Ducret specified.

    On the strength of this success, the 2e Observatoire decided to continue its work by branching out into an attack on stereotypes that develop in the playground and at elementary school. Over a one-and-a-half-year period, the team went to observe what was happening at various establishments in the Swiss cantons of Geneva, Neuchâtel and Jura. “It was a natural step for us to start observing children in the next age group, after having studied those at kindergarten”, Bulle Nanjoud, who is in charge of the project explained. “We realised that gender bias develops in a different way at elementary school, but that it’s still very present. We noted, for example, that the majority of both the physical space and the sound environment is taken up by boys. Which is a shame, because it’s a fact that is well known by researchers, and yet the situation hasn’t changed.” An updated version of the guide, based on these further observations will be published in September 2018, and will be distributed to teaching staff by the cantonal departments of education. Featuring the same look and same tone, this new version of the guide has the same mission as its predecessor: to kick gender stereotypes out of the education system.

  • Rêv’Elles, Empowering young women to get their lives on track

    Rêv’Elles, Empowering young women to get their lives on track

    It’s now been four years since Athina Marmorat decided to take on the fight against social inequality at her own level by founding Rêv’Elles. This association supports and mentors young women from deprived areas and helps them tap into their potential.

     “I don’t think they realise just how life changing this experience can be”, said 15-year-old Tatia, still overwhelmed with emotion at the impact that Rêv’Elles has had on her. The young woman, who once lacked self-confidence, was on the verge of dropping out of school before joining Rev’Elles. Now, after her time in the programme, she has a well-planned life project and is able to, in her own words, “see further and project into the future.” When Athina Marmorat founded the association on December 25, 2013, she set out to offer young girls – often unemployed, unoccupied and lacking direction – the chance to find themselves and realise their full potential.

    The idea came to Marmorat while she was working with students in the Parisian suburbs. She realised that the kind of ambitions they expressed for the future were worryingly monotonous, which left her feeling bitter. Limited by their social milieu and confining themselves to the neighborhood they lived in, “they weren’t seeing the wider world”, “they weren’t aiming high enough nor dreaming big enough”, Marmorat remarked, in her then job as a careers advisor. The type of jobs they talked about; “childcare worker, secretary, personal assistant, medical secretary…”, felt like a series of dull blows that gradually turned into a call to action. “No one ever wants to become a doctor or an architect”, she lamented at the time. She blamed French society, undermined by socio-cultural inequality. Marmorat decided to put all of her energy into “giving these girls confidence in themselves”, as she found these 14 to 22 year olds, “too often paralysed by fear.” Her aim was to see them “dare to go out into the world.”

    Women of very different backgrounds

    During the first intensive week of mentoring, the participants gain access to a “discussion space where they can talk about their dreams, what they have in common and the difficulties they are experiencing,” Athina Marmorat explained. Four programmes are set up, a dynamic starts to take hold within the group, and bonds start to form. Among the activities on offer, the “Rêv’Elles Café” is a slot dedicated to encouraging the girls to debate the kind of problems that are unique to women when it comes to “feeling empowered to take action,” while “Rêv’Elles-Moi ton entreprise” (Dream me your business) is a complete immersion experience of the workplace. But the uniquely distinguishing feature of Marmorat’s association is the skillful way in which it brings together women of all different backgrounds and social classes. As the founder explains, “There’s real diversity in terms of age and geographical background, all of these women have had a very different path in life.” Each candidate receives individual support from a mentor, or ‘role model’, as the association calls them, until her prejudices and fears give way to a more concrete understanding of the career that interests her. Samira Ibrahim, a journalist for French public national television channel France2 and Rêv’Elles ‘role model’, confirms that these young women effectively become immersed in a world that “they didn’t know before”, and that they experience “discovery after discovery.” The journalist brought her own mentee to work with her, introducing the young woman to both her editor and colleagues. In this setting, she was able to mix with professionals and realise that she had within herself the potential to fulfil her new ambitions.

     

    “A turning point”

    Four years after its creation, Rêv’Elles now counts more than 230 members and over 2,365 Facebook subscribers, and is continuing to gain ground. According to Athina Marmorat, more than half of the participants came to Rêv’Elles because it was recommended by a friend.  According to data from the association’s website 97 percent of participants report being satisfied at the end of the programme, certain graduates have even gone onto top French universities, whilst others have found vocational or educational courses better aligned with their aspirations. 19-year-old Aude-Emeline from Noisy Le Sec, a Parisian suburb, falls into this group. She said that for her the experience has been a “key moment, a turning point”, and that through Rêv’Elles, she has “found her path”. Sawsane, an 11th grade student from Gagny, another Parisian suburb, signed up to the association aged 15, feeling disorientated. However, by the end of the programme, having visited the firm Dow Chemicals, she had chosen her vocation: that of chemical engineer. “I was unsure of my plans for the future, but now I know what I want to do.”

    Athina Marmorat nevertheless stressed the impossibility, or complexity of capturing this experience in words. 16-year-old Mégane agreed, adding that she still felt emotional about having undergone this “necessary rite of passage” in life.

    http://www.revelles.org/