Women's Empowerment: Another CSR project on your todo list

When one thinks of "women's empowerment", there is no direct link with all the CSR projects and the global strategy in place. Right? What if we told you that women's empowerment is just another CSR project that you should work on because it bears in itself important social impact values?

Yes, you're not dreaming. We are going to address women's empowerment as the next social impact and CSR program you should set up within your workplace. We sure know that the concept of "women's empowerment" is a wide one, that covers many meanings and historical moments in our modern society. We would like to share it with you as the concept of accepting and empowering women's place, skills, viewpoints, impact, and issues in every field necessary. Women's empowerment encompasses every action that equips and gives opportunities to women to be part of societal debates, but also to have a voice in society, in their workplace, in their family, entourage, etc. It's strongly linked to the economic empowerment of women which strives to give them the power to possess their resources and manage their own finances, incomes, assets. Well, in other words: the concept is wide. 

That is why we thought we should give you insight and pieces of advice on how to adapt it and make it work internally for you, your coworkers, and your brand. 

Why does empowering women matter?

We won't even write about the obvious statement: because they are equal to men so they of course deserve the same visibility and etc. Rather than stating the obvious, we will argue that women are part of the workforce, play an important part in the family, have a role in communities, and they are part of the economy's stability since they represent a large part of the workforce in certain fields but should obviously have access to all the fields.

Empowering women, empowering your CSR program

Back in 2011, Coca-Cola launched a program ("STAR Program") that supported some 5 million women entrepreneurs to face and find solutions to the limitations that they were facing to reach business success. It's a CSR and social impact strategy that made quite a lot of noise and that helped the brand position itself as a gender-equality-friendly company. These kinds of programs awareness of gender issues and give opportunities to women but also girls who aim at becoming entrepreneurs one day. 

How can you empower women?

Whether it is by sponsoring a girl or learning more about gender equality issues, partnering up with feminist nonprofits, or educating your coworkers on the small tiny sexist comments and situations that might happen in the workplace, you can do it all. 

The purpose is to do something. You have to start somewhere and improve your women's empowerment program step by step, just like with any other social impact project you worked on.  But be aware of the feminism washing. Lately, a lot of feminists are quite critical of the way famous brands are using feminist topics to advertise their products, like the Adidas controversy that divides the audience. You don't have to do it because it's trending: you should do it because you know it matters and it fits your value. Make sure to start the conversation internally and not be abrupt on the way to introducing this new CSR positioning. It takes time, reflection and refining to get involved in this societal debate and make sure that you address it cautiously.  

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5 easy ideas to empower women

• Learn about women empowerment and CSR
• Organize workshops with your teams on the topic
• Get involved with local nonprofits and attend their events
• Empower the women in your organization by giving them and their projects' the visibility they deserve
• Get involved on Women's Right Day

All the best social impact projects deserve the best all-in-one tool, don't they? Get in touch to find out more. 

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