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Women’s Empowerment and Entrepreneurship in the Transition to Low-Carbon Economies

Webinar Video

Seminar description:

Entrepreneurship has been promoted as a cure-all for economic survival almost everywhere in the world. This trend has peaked over the past 20 years during which most countries liberalized their economies and embraced globalization. Entrepreneurship can certainly benefit some women and it is important to continue providing support to optimize women’s entrepreneurial pursuits. However, it is also important to recognize that entrepreneurship is often not a realistic employment solution for some, particularly low-income, women. Research conducted around the world demonstrates that even well-intentioned interventions by governments, NGOs, private sector organizations and social enterprises fail to level the playing field for all women to become successful entrepreneurs. This is precisely why poorer women worldwide generally tend to be more interested in stable wage employment rather than entrepreneurship.

Given these limitations, it is important to refocus attention in the future to the creation of jobs with decent wages and good social benefits. Focusing on creating decent wage employment and expanding and improving social protection will also benefit women who choose to pursue entrepreneurship since there is mounting evidence that self-employed women continue to face the challenge of creating stable sources of income.

Within a broader conversation about job creation and social protection, it is important to create and optimize opportunities for women in lucrative non-traditional fields such as the natural resource and energy sector, transportation services, and skilled construction that have remained inaccessible for women almost everywhere in the world. Over a decade of research on employment and entrepreneurship in such non-traditional occupations has revealed that education, training, certification and employment placement can play an important role in providing skilled women with quality livelihood opportunities in non-traditional occupations. Wider policy intervention is simultaneously needed at municipal, state and national levels to ensure that such efforts have replicable, sustainable, and gender-equitable results.

This 2-hour seminar/webinar discussed state of the art research and thinking on women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship in the transition to low-carbon economies. A diverse panel of experts from the worlds of international development research, policy and practice discussed how to create and optimize opportunities for women in lucrative non-traditional fields such as the energy and natural resource sector, transportation services, and skilled construction that have remained inaccessible for women almost everywhere in the world.

This is the seventh and final event in a series of research-to-practice training seminars on women’s empowerment organized by the WED Lab in partnership with Canada’s International Development Research Centre.

Featured panelists:

  • Bipasha Baruah (University of Western Ontario) (Facilitator)
  • Joanne Lebert (IMPACT)
  • Patience Singo (IMPACT)
  • Françoise Nduwimana (Global Affairs Canada)
  • Laurent Jodoin (Econoler)

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