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Sources of funding are often focused on initiatives that are “ready to scale” rather than early-stage ones that require trial and error to succeed. When it comes to advancing women’s rights and gender equality, however, both context and timing are important. Amina Doherty, former founding member and coordinator of FRIDA–The Young

Feminist Fund, noted there are many social innovations put forth by women and girls that are in response to a particular moment, such as how women responded to violence in Tahrir Square during the political demonstrations that led to the 2011 Egyptian revolution and the subsequent resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. As Doherty noted, some innovations can and should be temporal—they do not always intend to become a long- standing organization—while others leverage timing to their advantage to build

something long term. For example, in our interview, Cynthia Coredo (program manager of Boxgirls Kenya) and Sarah Ndisi (founder and boxing coach at Boxgirls Kenya) indicated that Boxgirls gained significant momentum during the chaos of the elections in Nairobi in 2008. Boxgirls Kenya uses boxing as an innovative tool to help empower young girls. The girls receive leadership and skills training, sexual health education, and entrepreneurship training. Boxgirls was founded in 2007, but it was during the

postelection violence in Nairobi in 2008 that Boxgirls was able to gain support as an organization. During the elections, there was a significant increase in violence in slums, and many women and girls were raped. The increase in sexual violence combined with a lack of a platform for girls to speak about their experiences led to the establishment of Boxgirls. The organization currently supports 648 girls aged between 8 and 23 years from communities in Nairobi.

HarassMap provides another interesting example. As Rebecca Chiao (cofounder of HarassMap) and Reem Wael (director of HarassMap) explained, HarassMap was developed in response to the persistent problem of sexual harassment on the streets of Egypt. In 2005, one of the now cofounders circulated a survey to better understand the issue of sexual harassment and quickly learned that it was a pervasive issue. In 2008, the issue of sexual harassment in Egypt began to receive a great deal of attention, and one of the cofounders was introduced to Frontline SMS and Ushahidi (free software that can be linked together to make an anonymous reporting and mapping system for harassment). In 2010, at a time when a majority of women and girls in Egypt owned a mobile phone, HarassMap was launched. HarassMap documents incidents of sexual harassment through SMS, its Web site, or its various social media outlets, which are then placed onto an online map of Egypt. Since HarassMap began, activists from 25 countries have asked to have similar initiatives set up in their own countries.

Owing to the sometimes outdated and traditional understanding of scale, women’s solutions for their own context-specific and timely problems are not on the radar of those looking to fund women’s rights or development. As Seidman and Chahine (2015) stated, “rather than spreading impact by introducing innovations from the outside-in, it’s time

we think of scale as seeding solutions inside a community, and then expanding from the inside-out.”

Beth Woroniuk, advocate, advisor, analyst, and consultant in issues related to women’s rights and gender dimensions of peace building, conflict, and humanitarian assistance, identified an interesting area for further research. Woroniuk noted that looking at research in the fields of post-disaster, post-conflict, and social innovation could provide useful ideas for further research. A current theme within the literature on post-conflict is a debate around whether women’s rights and gender equality can be permanently

advanced. Some argue that in times of armed conflict and crisis, there are openings to advance women’s rights and gender equality, such as land titling. For example, once housing is reestablished, titles can be granted to women or granted jointly between spouses, giving women access to landownership, often for the first time. Others argue that any progress made during conflict is only temporary, because once the conflict is over, there is usually a strong reassertion of traditional gender roles. There is consensus, however, that peace is inextricably linked with gender equality and women’s leadership. The global study “Preventing Conflict, Transforming Justice, Securing the Peace” explored the relationship between conflict and women’s rights. The report demonstrated that women’s participation and inclusion in humanitarian assistance make it more

effective in a number of ways. For example, it strengthens the protection efforts of peacekeeping, it contributes to the success of peace talks and the achievement of sustainable peace, it accelerates economic recovery, and it helps to counter violent extremism. The report demonstrated that peace is inextricably linked with gender equality and women’s leadership (UN Women, 2014).

Woroniuk noted, “Perhaps, given this moment of transition with disasters and conflict, there are also opportunities to combine advancements for gender equality, women’s rights, and social innovation that may not be possible in times of normality.” To what extent can those working toward gender equality and women’s rights capitalize on these periods of transition? Are there elements of social innovation that can further this

progress? One recommendation for further research is at the intersection of post-conflict, post-crisis, post-disaster situations, and social innovation studies.