ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the potential of cooperatives and the wider social and solidarity economy (SSE) in advancing women's empowerment and gender equality around the world. It discusses why women join or establish cooperatives and evaluates the growing phenomenon of women-only cooperatives. It draws on academic and policy research that provides insights on how women fare in cooperatives as founders, leaders, members, and workers. In addition to a global overview, the empirical focus is on the care, agricultural, financial, and retail sectors, with a specific attention to institutional and policy implications. In contexts where social and cultural norms may restrict women’s engagement in the public sphere, emergence of women-only cooperatives is observed. Feminist scholarship can undertake critical analysis of women-only cooperatives. Research gaps exist in gaining a better understanding on how transitions between cooperatives and other SSE organizations take place and the nature of relations between these different SSE organizations.
