Co-ops Enable Low-Income Women to Work as Owners and Decision Makers

[marmar]

Co-ops Enable Low-Income Women to Work as Owners and Decision Makers

Monday, 30 March 2015 00:00
By Eleanor J. Bader, Truthout | Report


Co-ops not only give low-income and immigrant women a way to enter an often unwelcoming - and in some cases, hostile - economy, but also give them a way to exert some control over their work lives and simultaneously support themselves and their families. They have consequently been some of the early adopters in the not-yet-critical-mass movement of worker-owned cooperative businesses that has begun to catch fire in towns and cities throughout the United States.

Melissa Hoover, executive director of the Democracy at Work Institute, estimates that there are presently between 300 and 400 worker-owned businesses operating domestically. The fledgling cooperative movement is diverse. There are co-op bakeries, catering companies, tortilla-makers and cafes; bike repair shops; taxi companies; dog-walking and cat-sitting services; and upholsterers. There are also worker-owned farms, elder- and child-care agencies, tutoring programs, and factory and construction businesses.

What's more, they run the gamut in terms of size. Some have just three to five members while the largest, Cooperative Home Care Associates in the Bronx, has 2,100. And while most involve both men and women, a growing number of all-women co-ops have been established as a way for low-income and immigrant females to earn a living.

According to Amy Johnson, co-executive director of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, the majority of established women's co-ops came together at the behest of an agency that then serves as mentor and facilitator. "Women frequently come to a social service organization needing jobs and child care and learn about co-ops from someone there," she said. "Sometimes they've seen another co-op in town, but that's unusual. People rarely know much about the co-op model." ................(more)

http://truth-out.org/news/item/29872-co-ops-enable-women-entrepreneurs-to-work-as-owners-and-decision-makers

[rogerashton]

1. While there is a long history

of women gaining particularly from the coop movement (guys gain too) there seems to be real surge of successful worker coops -- good news for women and men who want a do-it-yourself future.

[nikto]

2. Let's hope Co-Ops are the future of a true Free-Enterprise system

Richard D Wolff speaks and writes on this topic often.

http://www.alternet.org/richard-d-wolff-can-we-remake-our-workplaces-be-more-democratic

http://www.rdwolff.com/content/cooperatives-and-workers%E2%80%99-self-directed-enterprises

The world's most-successful Co-Op, Mondragon, in Spain: