Gender-based violence and women’s entrepreneurship

Gender-based violence can be defined as any type of violence and discrimination that disproportionately affects one gender, or is perpetrated against an individual because of their gender. Women are particularly exposed to violence, whether physical, psychological, economic or institutional, in all regions of the world.

The persistence of an unequal and violent system towards women has a direct impact on their ability to undertake business and integrate into the economic system. For these reasons, Empow’Her decided to become more directly involved in preventing and combating gender-based violence, particularly through research and development activities.

Through these research and development activities, Empow’her aims to achieve several objectives : 

• To identify the main characteristics of situations of violence encountered by women entrepreneurs in the course of their lives, and to study their impact on their entrepreneurial activity and, more broadly, on their economic and social emancipation ;
• To analyse, 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 women, rural environments);
• Suggest courses of action to better integrate gender-based violence into women’s empowerment projects, in order to train our teams and adapt Empow’Her’s activities, but also to share these results within our own ecosystem.

Empow’Her is coordinating the project as a whole, with the support of several of its local partners, particularly in carrying out the exploratory study. 

This study is funded by Natacha Fazal Karim, founder and CEO of Stardust Concept.

Find out more about the study in French and English.