Business report

2022

Scrolling direction

Is there
another way ?

Our questions

Beyond this shared understanding, there was a desire to go deeper. We felt the need to connect all the elements, to revisit our journey, to examine the opportunities we have seized, the successes and failures we have encountered, and our motivations and frustrations. We gave ourselves the time to explore the underlying mechanisms of our intuitions and ultimately questioned the impact we really wanted to have.

At Empow’Her, each of us observed that women entrepreneurs are underrepresented in the business sector and face unequal access to opportunities. This situation hinders their ability to change the world and fully exercise their rights. Each of us has become aware of this reality in our respective missions and contexts.

We could not begin this thinking process with only the impact of our activities in mind. We also had to consider our strengths and aspirations as a team. Empow’Her is primarily

made up of women and men who work together to promote the economic and social empowerment of women and their ability to take action. It includes projects that are close to our hearts. It includes women with whom we have shared challenges and successes. It represents expertize to be shared and the ambition to make a difference. To do this, we asked ourselves three questions:

What are the issues that stimulate and engage us as a team? What have we learned from our ten years of supporting entrepreneurs in Africa, Europe and around the world? Where do we really add value?

Our observations

Despite their courage in overcoming the obstacles in their path, women cannot single-handedly change social attitudes.

Forcing them to bear the burden of changing a system of which they are victims absolves the sexist laws, institutions and societies responsible for maintaining the status quo. Worse still, this situation forces women to bear the burden of a system from which they are excluded in decision-making processes. They are then faced with the challenge of adapting and integrating into a system that by its very nature rejects them. As a result, they unwittingly perpetuate this state of affairs and become unwitting accomplices in their own exclusion.

This problem ranges from the individual level, where women experience violence, to a system that perpetuates inequalities. From economic inequalities to feelings of isolation, from social pressures... The diversity and multiplicity of gender-based discrimination and violence, coupled with the accumulation of other systems of oppression, requires an intersectional and holistic approach. On the one hand, this means recognizing the diversity of women’s profiles and the existence of different forms of inequality, without trying to impose a one-size-fitsall solution. On the other hand, a successful approach must consider a wide range of issues and attempt to act on several fronts simultaneously, in a necessarily non-linear way.

This approach makes it possible to address a maximum number of challenges, while adapting to the specificities of each context and promoting a shift towards equality.
Finally, empowerment efforts, especially economic empowerment, cannot ignore work on attitudes and social and cultural norms, both at the individual and collective levels. This is crucial not only for the sustainability of the empowerment process, but also for the soundness of the foundation of equality that institutions must ensure.

Our strengths

As pioneers in the development of gender and entrepreneurship methodologies, our strengths today lie both in the diversity and expertise of the profiles within our teams and in our 10 years of experience in the field, working with numerous groups of women entrepreneurs.

Our global and multi-disciplinary impact

Empow’Her operates at the intersection of several ecosystems, which we seek to bring together in order to promote a paradigm shift in society. We facilitate dialogue and collaboration between diverse stakeholders in feminism, international cooperation and entrepreneurship. We are a creative force. Our mindset is impact-driven and solution-oriented. We enjoy creating, innovating, proposing new approaches and embarking on new projects that allow us to continually explore. We address the needs of a wide range of women entrepreneurs and have the ability to adapt our educational tools according to the context and target audiences.

Our worldwide outreach allows us to establish relationships with a diverse group of stakeholders and offer a global perspective on the issues we address, while also providing contextualized solutions.

Crucially, we value ongoing education, drawing knowledge from our internal teams and external collaborators, adopting an impact-driven philosophy, continuously testing our pedagogies through iterations, and more importantly, listening to the women we assist.

Our desires

During our transition, we were inspired by the thoughts and motivations that drive our team, which consists of members located in various countries and cities, and is truly diverse with a mosaic of locations, cultures, and genders. This diversity brings a multitude of expertise and experiences, creating a dynamic Empow’Her galaxy. Each team member is committed to Empow’Her’s mission, and enriches our organization with their strengths and individual motivations. As we enter a new decade, our shared desires align with four key priorities.

Firstly, we aim to enhance our impact by extending our geographical reach, while also prioritizing deeper engagement with our current women beneficiaries.

Additionally, we are committed to facilitating the growth of like-minded organizations via the Empow’Her ecosystem.

We place great value on fostering strong connections among women and with a wider network of allies.

Furthermore, we take pride in enhancing women’s voices, questioning established systems of representation and challenging prevailing narratives.

“We must have a clear collective goal for our team and work together towards it. It’s imperative that we identify our team’s identity and communicate it concisely.

Our mutual passion, voluntary spirit, and enterprising attitude bind us together. We’re all resolute in our ambition to progress cohesively towards a society that’s fairer, more sustainable and inclusive for all genders. We recognise the need to develop a distinctive vision that is both bright and adaptable to local challenge.”

Aviva Markowicz,
Chief Operating Officer of Empow'Her

Our vision for the future: working for
feminist entrepreneurship

On the eve of its 10th anniversary, Empow’Her is asserting and repositioning itself around the notion of feminist entrepreneurship.

After almost ten years of supporting women entrepreneurs on the ground, we have the conviction that the individual level is not enough to trigger change. We now want to tackle the systemic obstacles that hinder women’s ability to act.

We believe another way of doing business is possible. We want to open up dialogue around feminist entrepreneurship, conceived both as a societal offer and as an acknowledgement of the various paths women can take tin their entrepreneurial endeavors. We want these women to have the opportunity to gain autonomy and become the driving force behind a societal paradigm shift towards a more sustainable, equitable and feminist society.

Empow’Her is committed to taking corrective action on all the inequalities faced by women, while challenging the system that perpetuates these inequalities. We bring a gender perspective to all levels of the economic sector. Our aim is to promote impactful entrepreneurship that is both supportive and protective, valuing life experience and learning.

We are focusing on three strategic areas:

Making entrepreneurship a genuine path to integration and empowerment for all women

Redirecting entrepreneurship’s potential towards a feminist agenda

Transforming our economies and societies through a gender-transformative approach

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