Women in cooperatives

A cooperative ("co-op") is an autonomous association of persons who voluntarily cooperate for their mutual, social, economic, and cultural benefit through a mutually owned and democratically run enterprise.^[1] Cooperatives include non-profit community organizations and businesses that are owned and managed by the people who use their services (consumer cooperatives) or by the people who work there (worker cooperatives) and take on a variety of forms, ranging from officially registered cooperatives to loosely organized groups of neighbors, family, and kin networks. Cooperatives are based on values like self-help, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity.^[2] These values, among other aspects of cooperatives, are particularly useful in empowering women through membership.^[3] In statements in advance of International Women's Day in early 2013, President of the International Cooperative Alliance, Dame Pauline Green, said, "Cooperative businesses have done so much to help women onto the ladder of economic activity. With that comes community respect, political legitimacy and influence."^[4] Cooperatives allow women who might have been isolated and working individually to band together and create economies of scale as well as increase their own bargaining power in the market.^[3]

However, despite the supposed democratic structure and the values and benefits shared by cooperative members, particularly women, due to gender norms and other instilled cultural practices, women suffer a disproportionately low representation in cooperative membership around the world. Representation of women through active membership (showing up to meetings and voting), as well as in leadership and managerial positions is even lower.^[3] Women's cooperatives, run by and composed entirely of women, may be structured in a way that makes it easier for women to participate.