SEA women social entrepreneurs scale deep, up, and out to enact systemic change

From parliaments to boardrooms, gender reports have shown a disparity in female voices in seats of power, where their concerns can be acknowledged and genuinely heard.

Despite this gap, women in social entrepreneurship have made strides in ushering in change. This is evident in the impactful work of women social entrepreneurs elected in the Ashoka Fellowship in the past four decades, which represents 38 percent of its global network, according to Dr. Iman Bibars, Ashoka vice president and Ashoka Arab World regional director.

To further deepen their changemaking, however, there needs to be a continuous push for systems change. For Ashoka, this term describes both an outcome and an approach to social change.

In Southeast Asia, female Ashoka Fellows are creating systemic solutions to different social and sectoral issues by using these three strategies. At best, they integrate these strategies with each other, making a lasting and meaningful impact on their communities.