“I thought it was just my experience.”
That sentiment surfaces repeatedly in conversations about care, work, and gender equality in the workplace, including within social enterprises. Employees balancing paid work with caregiving responsibilities. Management trying to support staff while navigating limited resources. Advocates working to make unpaid care work more visible within organisations and communities.
For many, these experiences felt personal and isolated.
For GlowCorp, however, bringing people together has always been part of the solution.
As a social enterprise working with agricultural cooperatives and community-based producers, GlowCorp has long believed in the power of collective action. The organisation helps small-scale producers strengthen their market position by working together, creating greater bargaining power and shared economic opportunities. Through collaboration, individual farmers can achieve outcomes that would be difficult to secure alone.
Today, GlowCorp is applying that same philosophy to gender equality and care through its participation in WEE Connect, a Community of Practice (CoP) convened by PRESENT Coalition, the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia (ISEA), and Oxfam Pilipinas, and supported by Investing in Women, an initiative of the Australian Government.
As an active member of WEE Connect, GlowCorp is helping build a shared understanding of how gender-responsive policies and unpaid care and domestic work shape economic participation, workplace experiences, and opportunities for women.
Naming what was already there
GlowCorp’s journey did not begin with creating entirely new practices.
Like many social enterprises participating in WEE Connect, GlowCorp already had practices that reflected its commitment to inclusion. These included women in leadership positions, flexible work arrangements, and emergency care leave for employees with caregiving responsibilities. The organisation also actively works with women-led cooperatives and women-owned value chain partners.
Yet participation in EmpowerHer and the WEE Connect CoP encouraged GlowCorp to look at these practices differently.
Members of the Camarines Norte Federation of Cooperatives participate in a workshop by GlowCorp, ISEA, and Oxfam Pilipinas. (Photo from Oxfam Pilipinas)
Through action research, learning sessions, and the Benchmarks for Transformational Partnerships and Women’s Economic Empowerment assessment, the organisation began to recognise these efforts not as isolated initiatives, but as part of a broader commitment to gender- and care-responsive practice. GlowCorp subsequently started formalising these practices through policies, monitoring systems, and value chain engagement activities.
The process revealed an important insight: Meaningful change often begins by recognising and strengthening what already exists.
From personal experience to shared language
One of the strongest outcomes emerging from WEE Connect has been the creation of spaces where people can reflect on experiences that are often invisible.
Research carried out by ISEA and Oxfam among social enterprises found a significant gap between belief and practice. While most respondents expressed support for gender equality, far fewer reported experiencing an equal sharing of care and domestic responsibilities at home. At the same time, many social enterprises were already implementing gender- and care-responsive practices informally but had not yet institutionalised them through formal policies.
These findings resonated with GlowCorp and other CoP members.
Through webinars, workshops, bilateral coaching sessions, peer learning exchanges, and tailor-fit support from ISEA and Oxfam, participants were able to connect their own experiences with broader patterns. What previously seemed like individual challenges became part of a larger conversation about unpaid care work, workplace culture, leadership, and women’s economic empowerment.
Joerami Balintongog, GlowCorp Operations Manager, leads a session with members of the Members of the Camarines Norte Federation of Cooperatives. (Photo from Oxfam Pilipinas)
