By Lee Mannion
LONDON, Oct 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A best selling feminist author is collaborating with British businesses that seek to do good as well as make a profit to promote equality and support so-called social enterprises.
Caitlin Moran has produced a bag with Social Enterprise UK (SEUK), that supports Britain's ethical businesses, with the slogan "Not now the patriarchy, I'm busy".
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The bag will be sold at an event next weekend to encourage consumers to spend money with businesses that give back to society, and is also available online.
A 2017 report by SEUK found 41% of social enterprises are led by women, compared to 20% of women leaders at other small and medium-sized businesses, according to the British government's business department.
The people at Social Enterprise UK do SO much good work - solving problems, and making business work for society. You'd love them. It was a PLEASURE to invent this bag. "Not now the patriarchy - I'M BUSY." https://t.co/7j2mVvLoBQ
— Caitlin Moran (@caitlinmoran) October 8, 2018
Examples include Hey Girls, which donates sanitary products to women from low income families for every one it sells, and Birdsong, which markets ethically made clothes bearing images of women.
Made by women in the Indian city of Kolkata, the bags were manufactured by Freeset Global, a social enterprise which offers employment to women who are victims of sex trafficking.
Moran is the best selling author of How to Be a Woman, a modern take on feminism and a novel, How to Build a Girl.
The bags will be sold on October 13 on 'Social Saturday' - an event in London to raise awareness of how consumer spending can have a positive impact on society and the environment.
Britain is seen as a global leader in the innovative social enterprise sector, with about 100,000 businesses employing nearly 1 million people, according to SEUK, up from 55,000 businesses in 2007.
(Reporting by Lee Mannion @leemannion Editing by Ros Russell. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)