Meet the Enterprises in the NESsT - IKEA Social Entrepreneurship Latin America Accelerator Expanding Career Opportunities for Women
Key Takeaways
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.
About NESsT
NESsT invests in social enterprises that create quality jobs for underserved communities while sustaining the planet. NESsT raises philanthropic and impact investing capital to support the poorest communities facing isolation, discrimination, and lack of jobs skills or education. Since its launch, the organization has trained over 21,000 entrepreneurs, supported over 1200 social enterprises and invested in close to 200 that have created over 70,000 quality jobs benefitting 700,000 underserved individuals in emerging market countries.
About IKEA Social Entrepreneurship
IKEA’s vision is to create a better everyday life for as many people as possible. IKEA Social Entrepreneurship began in 2012 to look at how the IKEA brand could include products and services from social entrepreneurs in our offer. More recently IKEA expanded its support to include programmes that accelerate the movement of social entrepreneurship in general. Supporting social enterprises with a vision to create a more inclusive and equal society, our ambition is to have a positive impact on people’s livelihoods. Today, we back and boost social entrepreneurs all over the world, as well as expand the business we do together. That way, we get to be a part of creating new opportunities for vulnerable people and communities – while fighting the root causes of poverty and inequality.