African-American Women in Worker Cooperatives: Then and Now 

Participants will learn about the history of African American
women's involvement in the cooperative movement, and in Black-owned
cooperatives and worker owned cooperatives in particular. Participants
will explore the successes of existing co-ops, and ways to measure
economic and non-economic impacts of worker cooperatives on women
members, their families and communities. Participants will exchange
ideas about how to increase women of color's participation in worker
cooperatives; and ways to increase publicity and promotion of worker
cooperatives among women of color. Part presentation and part small
group activities with report back. Participants will work on strategies
or scenarios to empower women more in cooperatives, to measure success
and economic impacts, and to promote worker cooperatives for women of
color.

Jessica Gordon Nembhard is a university professor,
scholar activist, and co-op researcher, specializing in African
American cooperatives, urban cooperative development and worker
cooperatives, cooperatives as a community economic development and
wealth bulding strategy, the solidarity economy, racial wealth
inequality, and popular economic education. She is a member of the
USFWC, Grassroots Economic Organizing collective, the Eastern
Conference for Workplace Democracy, the Solidarity Economy Network –
USA, and the Federation of Southern Cooperatives.