Meet the Enterprises in the NESsT - IKEA Social Entrepreneurship Latin America Accelerator Expanding Career Opportunities for Women
Principais conclusões
In Latin America, while the participation of women in the labor market increased in recent years, women are still overrepresented in low-income or non-remunerated household work.
Gender biases stunt career growth opportunities for women in the workplace, regardless of their educational background.
Two social enterprises in the NESsT - IKEA Social Entrepreneurship Latin America Accelerator run training programs designed to help women land salaried employment, freelancing opportunities, and micro-entrepreneurship -- the choice is theirs!
In the last few decades, the participation of women in the labor market has grown tremendously in Latin America. From 1991 to 2014, the percentage of women employed in the region increased from 38% to 50%. A closer look at women’s increased participation in the workforce reveals that, despite the positive trend, women are disproportionately represented in low-income or non-remunerated work.
What’s holding women back from accessing higher-paying jobs?
Gender norms: In low-income communities, women and girls bear an unequal burden of domestic responsibilities. More of their time is spent on unpaid care work than on investing in their educational and vocational skills, which limits them from finding jobs that require extensive training and relegates them to insecure employment.
Career stagnation: These gender norms are reinforced by workplace cultures that further stunt career growth opportunities for women. Unlike men, women are encouraged by employers to take accommodations, such as working shorter hours or shifting to internally facing roles, to look after their families. In turn, they are offered fewer career advancement training and taken off the leadership path.
To break free from low-wage work and recover from extended pauses in their careers, women need affordable education and employment resources that foster continuous growth and development. Two social enterprises in the NESsT - IKEA Social Entrepreneurship Latin America Accelerator support women by providing them with the tools to thrive in the burgeoning tech and gastronomy industries which are historically male-dominated.
Both social enterprises are part of the 15 social enterprises receiving tailor-made support from the NESsT and IKEA networks so that the businesses can scale. The accelerator is focused on unlocking the next level of creativity and implementation when it comes to the areas of product development, logistics and operations, marketing & communications, business development and marketplace access, and last but not least, employment inclusion for all who need it most.
Maré de Sabores operates a catering service in Maré, one of the most populous slums in Brazil. The social enterprise provides women, especially low-income single mothers, with training, work experience, and job opportunities in the food industry.
Maré de Sabores has trained more than 750 women in gastronomy services, and placed 160 into employment in the industry, offering women living in poverty a chance to attain financial independence. Graduates of the program gain the confidence and technical skills needed to apply to roles in gastronomy, several of whom have opted to start their own small businesses.
The NESsT - IKEA Social Entrepreneurship Latin America Accelerator is assisting the social enterprise in refining its services and reaching new markets to improve its capacity to employ more women in the area.
Make it Real offers online bootcamps to train students in full-stack software development or data science. The enterprise has partnered with government training entities and educational institutes that offer technical degrees to help young women from low-income backgrounds access the bootcamps. In an industry where only 8% of workers in Colombia are women, the social enterprise aims to train 250+ women to ensure that they have equitable access to employment opportunities in the tech industry, including freelancing and salaried positions.
Beyond helping women find employment, these social enterprises equip women with transferable skills that help them pursue lifelong learning and adapt to the changing labor market. Their efforts empower women to make their mark as emerging leaders within an established company, as freelancers or managing their own businesses altogether.
Since welcoming Make it Real into its portfolio, the NESsT - IKEA Social Entrepreneurship Latin America Accelerator has connected the social enterprise with partner organizations also working to advance the inclusion of women in tech. With these industry leaders, Make it Real is improving its curriculum for women, including offering tailored soft skills and leadership training. Part of the accelerator’s investment in the enterprise is to set up a scholarship fund that will support underserved women to access Make It Real’s services and help aspiring female tech professionals to realize their career paths in tech.
Sobre NESsT
NESsT investe em empreendimentos sociais que criam empregos de qualidade para comunidades carentes e, ao mesmo tempo, sustentam o planeta. NESsT levanta capital filantrópico e de impacto investindo para apoiar as comunidades mais pobres que enfrentam isolamento, discriminação e falta de habilidades de trabalho ou educação. Desde seu lançamento, a organização já treinou mais de 21.000 empresários, apoiou mais de 1.200 empresas sociais e investiu em cerca de 200 que criaram mais de 70.000 empregos de qualidade beneficiando 700.000 indivíduos carentes em países de mercados emergentes.
Sobre IKEA Empreendedorismo social
IKEAA visão da empresa é criar uma vida diária melhor para o maior número de pessoas possível. IKEA O empreendedorismo social começou em 2012 para analisar como a marca IKEA poderia incluir produtos e serviços de empreendedores sociais em nossa oferta. Mais recentemente, IKEA expandiu seu apoio para incluir programas que aceleram o movimento do empreendedorismo social em geral. Apoiando empreendimentos sociais com a visão de criar uma sociedade mais inclusiva e igualitária, nossa ambição é ter um impacto positivo no sustento das pessoas. Hoje, apoiamos e impulsionamos empreendedores sociais em todo o mundo, assim como expandimos os negócios que fazemos juntos. Dessa forma, podemos ser parte da criação de novas oportunidades para pessoas e comunidades vulneráveis - ao mesmo tempo em que lutamos contra as causas fundamentais da pobreza e da desigualdade.