September's issue of The Constellation is all about gender equality. To kick things off, our
main feature, written by in-house writer Ashley Kim, showcases PRA (the Cameroonian startup we supported this past spring) and dives deep into the current situation of millions of women living in rural areas around the world. - What sorts of issues do they
face daily?
- Why are the majority of them still living in poverty?
- What are the benefits of empowering rural women?
Ashley also interviews Kashoro Nyenyezi, the executive director of the non-profit Helping Hand for Survivors (🇨🇩) and a beloved member of the Stardust Startups community. If you enjoy this article, please share it with others! Note: This article will be available to read on our own Stardust Startups blog in 2 weeks time. |
Gender equality: why it matters ♀️ Below are some of the issues women and girls face around the world: - Child marriage
- Female genital mutilation
- Domestic and sexual violence
- Lack of education/job opportunities
- Lack of inheritance rights
- Underrepresentation in politics
- Lack of freedom to make decisions about personal health care, sexual relations, and contraceptive use
- Pay gaps
- Unpaid domestic work
Women represent half of the world's population and thus, half of its potential.
It's evident that aiming to remove all legal, social and economic barriers to their empowerment is crucial to the prosperity of our society as a whole. Let's think about it... - If girls were actually encouraged to go to school, how many more brilliant scientists and world leaders would we have?
- If girls could choose whether they wanted a spouse or children, how many more happy relationships would exist? And fewer mental health struggles?
- If women were paid as much as men for the same jobs... couldn't we finally just focus on
other problems, like the preservation of our planet?
That's why Goal 5 of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals is Gender Equality. It's a fundamental human right and everyone wins when it's made a priority. |
| Jean's Notes What is power?
It's the ability to direct or influence another's behavior or course of events. Who has the ability to do this?
It depends... As a teacher, I had the power to have a student removed from class or to fail a student or send a student for disciplinary action that might lead to suspension or
expulsion from school. The decisions I made might change the course of the student's life. For millennia, human culture groups have subjugated one another because of power dynamics. The dominant culture group (which may not be the majority group—as in South
Africa during the time of apartheid) holds political and social control. When power refers to those rules, norms, customs, and practices that are translated into socially constructed differences between men and women, there are unequal value, opportunities and life chances. In the business world, particularly
in the entrepreneurial space, women have been sparsely represented or absent from the table when decisions are made. As women who founded a startup helping startups, we understand the roadblocks and challenges that female entrepreneurs can face as they launch startups! by Laura Jean Palmer-Moloney | |
Here's some further reading you might enjoy: By the way, the Women's March in DC is set for October 8th, 2022 to fight for reproductive rights. Wish I could be there! |
What's going on @ Stardust...
➫ Now that you've read all about gender equality, it's time you know that we'll be focusing our 2023 - 2024 Stardust Startups efforts on supporting female impact entrepreneurs! ♀️ ➫ BioAni, the Ivorian startup making fishmeal out of fly larvae, just won Blue Invest Africa's prize for Best Pitch! 👏 ➫ Dabba,
the French startup building a network of restaurants and consumers using reusable takeout containers, have expanded their team to 10 people—made up of 5 women and 5 men. 🎉 ➫ This isn't about Stardust, but have you heard the news?!
Patagonia's founder has decided to pledge the entire $3B company to a trust and a non-profit fighting against climate change. Chouinard’s open letter explains: “Instead of ‘going public’, you could say we’re ‘going purpose’. Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we’ll use the
wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth.”
This is huge news and it could truly change the way that a lot of people think about business. Read this article to learn more. |
Until next month!
Camille Babington
Senior Director of Operations, Communication
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