GENDER, DIVERSITY & INNOVATION: Why inclusivity matters. 24 May, 2022.

The WEI Global Institute (WGI) collaborates with partners, such as the Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Policy Research Network (Global WEP), to engage academics, policy makers, private sector, and key stakeholders. The virtual roundtables aim to identify and address issues & solutions, share lessons, and advocate for changes necessary to advance gender economic equity.

Our inaugural 2022 series is co-sponsored by the WGI and the Global WEP.

Join us on November 29/30 for the third panel discussion on Women and Social Entrepreneurship: Opportunity and Policy. To join us, register here: https://bit.ly/3fjg9kK

Wednesday, 30 November 2022 7:00am NZDT | Tuesday, 29 November 2022 2:00 PM EST | 7.00 PM GMT

As the world moves into the post-COVID era, continued global supply chain disruptions, war in eastern Europe, and almost weekly examples of the devastating (and inequitable) effects of the global climate emergency have brought the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals into renewed focus, and have called into question the wisdom of a return to ‘business as usual’. Social entrepreneurship is increasingly seen as a progressive and necessary response to the inequities and too-often exploitative nature of neo-liberal capitalism (Bandinelli, 2020), with its double/triple bottom line approach providing a potential synergistic ‘bridge’ between market-based activities and entrenched societal grand challenges (Little and Holt, 2018). Within this context, women are often portrayed as being more ‘suited’ to social entrepreneurship due to the extension of gendered stereotypes associated with women’s unpaid domestic labor and caring work into the marketplace (Garcia-Lomas and Gabaldon, 2021). Meanwhile, public policy on social entrepreneurship – particularly evidenced in the UK – has simultaneously sought to venerate the neoliberal masculine heroic entrepreneur narrative within social entrepreneurship (Kravets et al., 2020), while positioning it as a (neoliberal) panacea to the failings of an overly bureaucratic ‘nanny state’ (Nicholls and Teasdale, 2017).

The multiple tensions, contradictions and points of discord that exist at the nexus of social entrepreneurship policy and practice represent a potentially revelatory research opportunity, particularly as it relates to gender and social entrepreneurship. This Roundtable will spark dialogue on the intersectional opportunities (and failings) of women’s social entrepreneurship policy (de Bruin and Teasdale, 2019). It will also enliven discussions with perspectives on Indigenous women’s social entrepreneurship, as well as on policy recommendations that take a ‘wider’, non-binary gender focus.

Chair/Moderator
Professor Christine Woods, University of Auckland Business School, Aotearoa New Zealand

Panel Members
Prof. Josephine Barraket – Melbourne Social Equity Institute, University of Melbourne, Australia
Dr Kiri Dell – University of Auckland Business School, Aotearoa New Zealand
Dr Persephone de Magdalene – University of Auckland Business School, Aotearoa New Zealand

Discussant
Colette Henry, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland and Griffith University, Australia

Join us to engage in the discussion and to discuss positive solutions towards making entrepreneurial spaces gender-just.

Click here to register: https://bit.ly/3fjg9kK

Watch the second session of the series, ‘Women’s Entrepreneurship Policy Through a Culture Lens’ here – https://weiforward.org/wei-global-institute-entrepreneurship-policy-roundtables-womens-entrepreneurship-policy-through-a-culture-lens-21-september-2022/