Call for contributions : Empow’Her launches a survey on gender-based violence and its impact on women’s entrepreneurship

Prior warning : this article is about gender-based violence

For the past 10 years, Empow’Her has been accompanying women throughout their entrepreneurial journey, supporting them in their emancipation. In the course of its activities, Empow’Her has observed the many difficulties encountered by women because of their gender, including exposure to various contexts of violence (institutional, economic, physical, psychological, etc.) which limit their access to numerous opportunities and impact their physical and mental health.

It is in this context that Empow’Her has initiated a reflection on how to better take into account situations and experiences of violence within the framework of its entrepreneurial support programs. The association also runs several projects to promote entrepreneurial and associative initiatives to combat gender-based violence.

As a feminist organization, Empow’Her wants to become more directly involved in preventing and combating gender-based violence, by carrying out a study on the characteristics and impact of gender-based violence (GBV) on the activity of women entrepreneurs at different stages of their professional activity and in different contexts.

Empow’her aims to achieve two main objectives :

• Using a questionnaire accessible to all, identify the main characteristics of situations of violence encountered by women entrepreneurs in the course of their lives, and study their impact on their entrepreneurial activity and, more broadly, on their economic and social emancipation ;
• To analyze, through interviews, focus groups and meetings with support structures, how the development of entrepreneurial tools can contribute to the economic and social emancipation of women in vulnerable situations, in different contexts (professional reintegration, refugees/displaced people, rural environments).

The results of the study, due in June 2023, will enable us to put forward recommendations for taking better account of gender-based violence in entrepreneurship support and the development of economic empowerment programs.

Click here to access the questionnaire

Do you have any questions or suggestions about the study ? We’d love to hear from you !

Contact us via this e-mail address : [email protected]

This study is funded by Natacha Fazal Karim, founder and CEO of Stardust Concept. She has chosen to support Empow’Her in its research and development activities on the cross-cutting theme of gender-based violence.