Guest Blog<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/h3><\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Introducing Emerging Research Findings<\/p><\/h3><\/span> Guest blog by Dr. Julia Fursova, Assistant Professor, Renaissance College, Interdisciplinary Leadership Studies Program, UNB <\/i><\/p>\n In this research update, we present initial insights into the challenges that social enterprise founders experience and the types of support they seek from funders, policymakers, and allies.<\/p>\n For analyzing data grouped into categories of challenges, we applied the \u2018Gender as a Social Structure\u2019 framework (Risman, 2018<\/a>) to understand how challenges experienced at different levels \u2013 individual, interactional and systemic, or macro-level – interact as a system. According to Risman\u2019s framework, we grouped the challenges into two key categories of challenges: material and cultural.<\/p>\n Material challenges are presented as a combination of access to funding, access to networking and appropriate training and programs, as well as operational challenges. Material challenges are influenced by cultural-level systems challenges related to organizational identity struggle, as well as gender-specific and intersectional barriers women and non-binary founders experience.<\/p>\n The diagram below illustrates how both system-level material and cultural challenges intersect with and influence one another. Of the social enterprises participating in the research, half are at their \u2018emerging\u2019 stage and are less than 5 years old. Another half are more established social enterprises with over 5 years in existence. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div> <\/p>\n Material Challenges<\/span><\/p>\n Access to funding<\/b> emerged as one of the key themes in this category. Within the access to funding theme, the following sub-themes emerged:<\/p>\n Operational challenges<\/span> are directly connected to funding challenges and include day-to-day costs such as utilities, space, as well as organizational demands for managing HR, legal and accounting aspects of running an organization. The theme was present among emerging social enterprises in their \u2018emerging\u2019 stage, as well as among more established nonprofits.<\/p>\n Access to networks<\/span> et access to relevant training and programs <\/span>are other sub-themes contributing to systems level material challenges. Social enterprise founders talked about difficulties finding professional networks in which they feel like they belong, as well as difficulties with finding trainings and programs that are relevant to their unique position in the marketplace, as well as their needs as women founders.<\/p>\n Cultural challenges<\/span> are comprised of \u2018organizational identity struggle\u2019 and \u2018gender-specific and intersectional challenges\u2019.<\/p>\n Organizational identity<\/span> struggle is an important theme under the systems level cultural challenges umbrella. We want to emphasize that \u2018struggle\u2019 is different from \u2018identity crisis\u2019. Social enterprises know who they are, but they collectively struggle with the question of where they belong. By trying to fit into one of the boxes, \u2018for-profit\u2019 or \u2018non-profit\u2019, they risk losing an important part of their identity as well as access to available resources, including funding.<\/p>\n Gender-specific and intersectional challenges<\/span> are comprised of cultural barriers women and non-binary founders experience at an individual and interactional level. Such barriers relate to internalized sexism and sexism experienced in their interactions with males in positions of influence and power, as well as racial bias experienced by founders who identify as Black, Asian, or Of Colour.<\/p>\n Often women and non-binary founders begin their social enterprise journey as \u201clabour of love,\u201d motivated by their deep sense of responsibility and the desire to foster positive social change. Yet founders experience multiple responsibilities related to societal gender-based expectations and biases. Gender-specific challenges often coincide with racism and ageism, thus creating intersectional barriers. Under systemic pressures\u2014including funding gaps, cultural biases, and the over-extraction of their caring capacities\u2014this \u201clabour of love\u201d can become a \u201cburden of care,\u201d leading to burnout. Women and non-binary founders need more targeted and tailored resources to support their leadership in social enterprise.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/p>\n Cultural Challenges<\/span><\/p>\n Cultural challenges<\/span> are comprised of \u2018organizational identity struggle\u2019 and \u2018gender-specific and intersectional challenges\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n Organizational identity<\/span> struggle is an important theme under the systems level cultural challenges umbrella. We want to emphasize that \u2018struggle\u2019 is different from \u2018identity crisis\u2019. Social enterprises know who they are, but they collectively struggle with the question of where they belong. By trying to fit into one of the boxes of \u2018for-profit\u2019 or \u2018non-profit\u2019, they risk losing an important part of their identity, as well as access to available resources, including funding.<\/p>\n Gender-specific and intersectional challenges<\/span> are comprised of cultural barriers women and non-binary founders experience at an individual and interactional level. Such barriers relate to internalized sexism and sexism experienced in their interactions with males in positions of influence and power, as well as racial bias experienced by founders who identify as Black, Asian, or Of Colour.<\/p>\n Often women and non-binary founders begin their social enterprise journey as \u201clabour of love,\u201d motivated by their deep sense of responsibility and the desire to foster positive social change. Yet founders experience multiple responsibilities related to societal gender-based expectations and biases. Gender-specific challenges often coincide with racism and ageism, thus creating intersectional barriers. Under systemic pressures\u2014including funding gaps, cultural biases, and the over-extraction of their caring capacities\u2014this \u201clabour of love\u201d can become a \u201cburden of care,\u201d leading to burnout. Women and non-binary founders need more targeted and tailored resources to support their leadership in social enterprise.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/p>\n Supports<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Amidst multiple challenges they experience, social enterprise founders continue finding ways to stay resilient and thrive in their role as trailblazers in transforming the economy. The next set of data addresses the kinds of support founders have been able to leverage and what additional resources they need.<\/p>\n Community building emerged as an important theme under both categories: support that social enterprise founders already received and found useful; and as the kind of support they seek and desire.<\/p>\n<\/div> <\/p>\n The need for a \u2018Community of Practice\u2019 for social entrepreneurs emerged as the founders discussed the importance of peer support, mentorship, appropriate programming and training, stand-alone workshops, and coaching.<\/p>\n Below are paraphrased and summarized quotes from interviews with founders that further unpack what they mean by \u2018targeted support\u2019 for women and non-binary founders in social enterprise:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Next Steps<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n To further refine these findings and shape potential recommendations, we invited research participants and partners to a \u201cdata party\u201d\u2014a collaborative data analysis session. Stay tuned for our next blogpost in which we will share the insights from our first \u2018data party\u2019!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ]The Women and Non-Binary Leadership in Social Enterprise Research Team:<\/p>\n You can follow along as we share more guest blogs on this project.<\/p>\n Research updates will be shared on Renaissance College social media platforms: Facebook<\/a> et Instagram<\/a>, as well as Julia\u2019s personal LinkedIn<\/a> et website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":2603,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5553","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nGrowing Knowledge Together: Women and Non-Binary Leadership in Social Enterprise<\/span><\/p>\n
Challenges<\/h5>\n
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