Promoting Gender Equality through Social Innovation

From women-only taxi companies in New Delhi to smokeless stoves in Uganda, innovation can transform the lives of women and girls around the globe. While it is well known that social innovation and women’s empowerment are each processes that drive change, there is little research to date connecting social innovation to the empowerment of women and girls. This project will identify how social innovation can empower women, through a partnership with the MATCH International Women’s Fund. This project will support MATCH through the launch, and development of first year of the fund. As the first of its kind in Canada, the fund will invest in social innovation projects proposed by women and girls in the global South. Through an extensive, multidisciplinary literature review, interviews with key players in the fields of social innovation and gender and development, the development of an evaluative framework, and profiles of the projects funded by MATCH, this project will help to shape the emerging field of “women and social innovation,” produce key recommendations, identify future areas of research and provide new insights to help empower women and girls in the developing world through innovation.

Faculty Supervisor:

Bipasha Baruah

Student:

Partner:

Match International

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Other services (except public administration)

University:

Western University

Program: