Small farms are plentiful in Hà Giang, a province in the forested hills of northern Vietnam where Luu Thi Hoa started Po My, an agricultural cooperative that sells peas, leafy greens and honey from local farms.
Hoa’s business not only supports her family — it also provides sustainable livelihoods for her community. But like many local business owners, Hoa took a major hit when the COVID-19 pandemic brought tourism in Vietnam to a standstill.
Hoa considered herself fortunate. She had access to programming through CARE, a global humanitarian organization that created the Ignite program to help build entrepreneurship among underserved micro- and small-business owners. She credited the program, supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, for boosting her financial management skills, which helped her refine her business operations and achieve a better-work life balance. But not all women entrepreneurs can get this kind of help.
All across the globe, women seeking to achieve economic empowerment often face three major obstacles: income inequality, digital inequality and information inequality.
Income inequality is an ongoing problem that was only exacerbated by the pandemic: 90% of women who lost their jobs became economically inactive, pushing men and women further apart on the already inequitable economic spectrum.
In today’s world, digital inequality makes it even harder for women who remain in the workforce to obtain income parity. More than 50% of women are offline, and women are 20% less likely than men to own smartphones. Without access to the full power of the digital economy, female entrepreneurs cannot integrate digital technologies into their businesses to reach new customers or reap the efficiencies that technology affords.
Continue reading: https://www.mastercard.com/news/perspectives/2022/women-economic-empowerment-and-gender-equity/
Hoa’s business not only supports her family — it also provides sustainable livelihoods for her community. But like many local business owners, Hoa took a major hit when the COVID-19 pandemic brought tourism in Vietnam to a standstill.
Hoa considered herself fortunate. She had access to programming through CARE, a global humanitarian organization that created the Ignite program to help build entrepreneurship among underserved micro- and small-business owners. She credited the program, supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, for boosting her financial management skills, which helped her refine her business operations and achieve a better-work life balance. But not all women entrepreneurs can get this kind of help.
All across the globe, women seeking to achieve economic empowerment often face three major obstacles: income inequality, digital inequality and information inequality.
Income inequality is an ongoing problem that was only exacerbated by the pandemic: 90% of women who lost their jobs became economically inactive, pushing men and women further apart on the already inequitable economic spectrum.
In today’s world, digital inequality makes it even harder for women who remain in the workforce to obtain income parity. More than 50% of women are offline, and women are 20% less likely than men to own smartphones. Without access to the full power of the digital economy, female entrepreneurs cannot integrate digital technologies into their businesses to reach new customers or reap the efficiencies that technology affords.
Continue reading: https://www.mastercard.com/news/perspectives/2022/women-economic-empowerment-and-gender-equity/
