How can we better harness social innovation ideas and methods to advance gender equality—and vice versa?

Research examined three dimensions of gender inequality—resources, attitudes, and power—and while they found some points of positive progress (such as the increasing number of female parliamentarians), there were many points of sticky inequality.

A number of work has been done globally and nationally to bring out equality.Despite these green shoots, there are clear gaps to fill. For example, much work to date has focused on increasing support for women entrepreneurs and innovators. This in itself helps boost equality, but it won’t necessarily deliver innovation that addresses gender inequality; all innovations developed by women don’t address gender inequality, and it is now widely recognized that accelerating gender equality will require innovation that addresses and engages both women and men.

Both nationally and internationally, we need more:

• Ways of talking about gender innovation that engage both gender equality workers and projects, and the broader community of social innovation practitioners, intermediaries, and funders. Language differences can mask common goals and approaches to gender equality and social innovation.  Accessible texts, guides, videos, and workshops can bridge the communication gap. The Criterion Institute, for example, has been developing a toolkit to specifically work through this in the context of social finance.
• Spaces and support to enable the different actors—funders, intermediaries, social innovation and gender equality organizations—to reach out and connect with the unusual suspects (including organizations that may not consider their work as social innovation), and to challenge old ones. Whether physical or virtual, we need to create and promote opportunities for these groups to come together for both sides to benefit. For example, funders and intermediaries with the resources to host smaller organizations could develop workshops, forums, or “un-conferences” to help harness the creativity of unusual juxtapositions.
• The social innovation community needs to more consistently recognize the innovation that takes place within the gender equality sector. In a bid to broaden understanding of social innovation, for example, Nesta recently highlighted 18 innovations that have shaped the world. Although this included gendered programs such as childcare and Girlguiding, it did not reference gender inequality or feminist innovation. Explicitly recognizing innovation within the gender equality sector will enrich the gender innovation already taking place.

Gender equality and social innovation actors are both known for their reflexivity–to critique and refine their own working. Both sides stand to gain from acknowledging each other, communicating, and collaborating.