Take the Lead: Educating and Empowering Women

The Social Challenge

Access to education and gender inequality disproportionately affect women from marginalized communities worldwide. This inequality hinders women's economic and civic participation, perpetuating cycles of poverty and discrimination. Democratizing educational access creates a ripple effect that benefits individuals, communities and societies, contributing to a more just and equitable world.

The Partnership

Take The Lead

The Partners

• Mexoxo
• eCornell
• L’Oréal Fund for Women
   

The Idea and the Action

Take The Lead promotes the idea that educated and empowered women are vital contributors to economic and civic life, pushing for a more equal society. Implemented in 155 countries, the project centers on three pillars:

1. Offering accredited courses from top-tier academic institutions
2. Ensuring affordability
3. Fostering local engagement to address cultural norms

The initiative operates through a synergistic partnership model, leveraging the strengths of the private, academic and non-profit sectors. It focuses on three short-term objectives:

1. Personal Transformation: Empowering women through eCornell scholarships, offering 26 comprehensive courses in leadership, entrepreneurship, career guidance, time management and digital literacy.
2. Community Empowerment: Strengthening supportive relationships and networks, collaborating with NGOs disseminate education and address cultural norms.
3. Ecosystem Impact: Catalyzing broader societal change by collaborating with institutions to create educational and employment opportunities, supporting entrepreneurial initiatives and encouraging women's civic engagement.

The goal is to democratize education for five million underserved women across 155 countries.

The Impact

To date, Take The Lead has impacted the lives of over 120,000 vulnerable women across 155 countries and more than 5,000 cities, demonstrating the transformative power of the initiative. Key metrics include:

Personal Transformation

• 62.42% of participants completed the educational journey
• 85.20% reported increased self-esteem and hopefulness
• 71.84% demonstrated improved digital literacy
• 63.37% acquired general knowledge on at least one topic of interest.

Community Empowerment

• 32.30% of participants are serving as role models in their local communities
• 320 hours invested in training trainers for street education activities
• 101 hours invested in training partners for online education activities

Ecosystem Impact

• 30 impactful partnerships established
• 75% of partners reported high satisfaction with the training opportunities
• Participants from 155 countries engaged in the program

The impact extends beyond numbers, which many participants transforming their lives and communities though newly acquired skills and knowledge.

The Faculty Insight

Gender inequality is both a human right and an integral part of a prosperous society. Goal 5 of the U.N Sustainable Development Goals highlights various factors (e.g., longstanding legal discrimination; limited access to health care; higher rates of sexual violence) that can impede women’s full participation in their economies. 

One way to advance the status of women is to improve women’s access to education, which typically has been conceptualized in terms of literacy rates or completion of primary and secondary education. While these are important targets to be sure, lifelong learning also could expand women’s earning potential and career prospects. 

The Take The Lead partnership, an initiative among nonprofit Mexoxo, eCornell, and L’Oreal Fund for Women, aims to democratize education for five million underserved women across 155 countries. It promotes the idea that educated and empowered women are vital contributors to economic and civic life. The project centers on three pillars: offering accredited courses from top-tier academic institutions, ensuring affordability and fostering local engagement to address cultural norms.

The unique partnership structure allows each entity to contribute within its expertise, collectively fostering a transformative impact on women's lives globally. And the connection to local stakeholders from Mexoxo’s presence cannot be overemphasized.  Mexoxo collaborates closely with hundreds of NGOs to tailor programming to local needs.

The specific challenges that limit women’s access to education, and ultimately to economic resources, varies greatly across space such that responsiveness and flexibility at the local level are imperative to success of any outreach initiatives. Awareness of local culture and agility when faced with challenges (e.g., lack of internet access, low English proficiency) can help leverage the resources offered by stakeholders like eCornell and L’Oreal.

Measuring impact in terms of personal and community transformation speaks to the far-reaching implications of Take The Lead. On an individual level, Take The Lead empowers women to have improved self-esteem, greater agency over possible career choices, and improved skills to access modern job market opportunities. But these sorts of individual-level changes also lead to greater integration of women in public life through enhanced peer networks and changing community attitudes towards program participants. 

The Darden School of Business’ Institute for Business in Society partners with Concordia and the U.S. Department of State Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships to present the annual P3 Impact Award, which recognizes leading public-private partnerships that improve communities around the world. This year’s award will be presented at the Concordia Annual Summit the week of 23 September 2024. The five finalists will be highlighted on Darden Ideas to Action on Fridays leading up to the event.

This article was developed with the support of Darden’s Institute for Business in Society where Maggie Morse is director of programs.