Women-Led Social Enterprises: A Catalyst for Inclusive Growth

Abstract

The social enterprises that are run by women have brought change, in the sense of inclusive and sustainable economic development particularly in marginalized societies. As part of addressing the gap in gender and income disparities, the role of women in initiating and operating businesses that are aiding in the socialization, generating job opportunities as well as empowering communities will be discussed in this paper. The study is built on the mixed-method research that introduces a combination of the qualitative interviews over 40 female social entrepreneurs and quantitative data over 120 social enterprises distributed in three regions to implement strategic approaches to make sure that their social mission is in line with their financial sustainability. The findings reveal that social enterprises run by women tend to be more community oriented, such as skill development, and reinvestment to the local economies, a factor that multiplies to the beneficiaries when a project is run by women, the beneficiary is beyond the direct beneficiaries. This was shown by empathetic, collaborative, and participatory decision-making leadership styles enhancing the resilience and reliability of organizations to its stakeholders. The study also mentions the major limitations such as inaccessibility to finances, bias of gender in investment ecosystems and policy gaps that scale back the expansion of enterprises. However, it is shown that, when properly sponsored, socially driven initiatives, carried out by women, can make a big leap to inclusive growth, as they incorporate social equality into market mechanisms. The paper will conclude with a policy recommendation to consolidate the institutional support, capacity building initiatives, and gender sensitive funding mechanisms that empower the women entrepreneurs to increase their influence. By and large, the study places women-led social enterprises as not only empowerment tools, but also as the key building block of equitable development, both in emerging economies and developed ones.