A recent article on Times Online suggests that women are far better suited to working within not-for-profit organisations than their male counterparts.
This claim comes from the fact that well over half of the entries to the recent Social Entrepreneur Awards were from the fairer sex. But, is this enough to make sweeping claims that women are in fact dominating the sector?
Times Online may have exaggerated a little but it seems that many others share the view that women are indeed excelling over men in these kind of organisations.
Carly Chynoweth suggested reasons why there would have been far more female entries. She writes that, “both genders desire autonomy, but that many women are also determined to give something back.”
Penny Newman, former chief executive of the Fairtrade coffee business Cafedirect, is head of the Fifteen Foundation,which trains disadvantaged young people to become chefs. She suggests that women do have the edge when it comes to developing and working in social enterprise because they have a stronger ability to balance the financial and social demands of such an organisation.
However. she tends to disagree that this is something which derives from the fact women are naturally more nurturing and instead puts it down to “a question of individual motivation.”
So, although women may be genetically more compassionate, it does not necessarily mean that they will excel in this area. Regardless of which sex features the most, it will be interesting to see which of the many entries will win the Social Entrepreneur Awards and take away the prize of £5 million funding for their organisation.
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