We are proud to announce that the paper “Democratic ideals and gendered realities: women’s experiences in worker cooperatives” has been awarded the 10EMESconf Best Paper Award in the PhD category at the 10th EMES International Research Conference.

The paper is authored by Zoé Marlier (PhD candidate) and Dr. Frédéric Dufays (second author), whom we warmly congratulate for this remarkable achievement.

This award recognises the originality, depth, and societal relevance of a study that reexamines democracy through the lived experiences of women working in cooperative enterprises.

About the Awarded Paper

Democracy is often promoted as the fairest form of governance. Yet feminist scholarship shows that democratic structures do not automatically ensure equality—particularly for women. This paper investigates how women working in Belgian worker cooperatives experience democracy in their daily work lives.

Through interviews and photo-elicitation, the authors explore how women describe, interpret, and navigate democratic participation at work. The findings reveal a nuanced landscape: although cooperatives provide meaningful opportunities for involvement and shared governance, they can also reproduce hidden gendered inequalities, such as the unequal distribution of emotional labour and care responsibilities.

By exposing these often-invisible practices, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of what democracy truly looks like for women. It calls for democratic models that recognise care, interpersonal relationships, and power imbalances as central components of governance.

Interview with Lead Author Zoé Marlier

To celebrate the Award, Zoé Marlier shared more about the study, its motivations, and its contribution to social economy scholarship.

1. Could you summarise your paper and its main findings?

Democracy is often seen as the fairest way to govern. Yet feminist scholars have shown that, in practice, it does not always guarantee equality – especially for women. This paper looks at how women working in Belgian worker cooperatives experience democracy in their daily lives. These organizations promote shared decision-making and equality. Through interviews and photo-elicitation, the study examines how women describe and experience democratic participation at work. The results show a mix of progress and challenges: although cooperatives provide space for involvement and collective governance, they also reproduce hidden gender inequalities, such as emotional labour and care work. By highlighting these everyday, often invisible dynamics, the paper helps rethink what democracy means in practice for women. It calls for forms of democracy that take into account care, relationships, and power imbalances.

2. What motivated your research, and what was your process?

This paper grew out of the intersection between my feminist commitments and my desire to explore fairer, more inclusive, and more meaningful ways of working. After a research internship at KCO (KU Leuven) and a master’s thesis at the University of Mons – later published in the APCE – on the work-life balance of women cooperative board members, one key question emerged: if cooperatives claim to be democratic, how is this democracy actually experienced, especially by women? This question becomes even more pressing given that the literature shows that democracy – although considered the best form of governance at many levels – is rooted in deeply patriarchal histories and theories that continue to shape how it is practiced today. To explore this, we centered the voices and lived experiences of women working in Belgian cooperatives, using photo-elicitation as a visual and participatory method to access more personal and nuanced accounts. The research highlights both the strengths and the limits of democratic practice within SE organizations that present themselves as exemplary. It calls for a deeper reflection on how participation can become genuinely equal. This work is ongoing, with new interviews underway and a growing focus on emotions and care.

3. How can this Award contribute to advancing SE scholarship?

This Award plays a key role in strengthening research in the social economy by drawing attention, for this one, to a study that challenges assumptions and broadens understanding of how democratic and feminist values are put into practice. By recognizing work that brings to light the lived experiences of practitioners, it encourages scholars to take seriously the everyday realities that shape – and sometimes limit – democratic participation and gender equality.

Highlighting such research helps reinforce the idea that the social economy is a space of continuous learning and transformation. It supports innovative and critical approaches that aim to make the sector more inclusive, fair, and aligned with its core values. In doing so, the Award contributes to building a more reflexive and impactful research community committed to advancing social justice in and through SE.

Celebrating Critical, Feminist, and Practice-Engaged Research

We extend our warmest congratulations to Zoé Marlier and Frédéric Dufays for this outstanding accomplishment.
Their work offers timely and essential insights into how democratic and feminist principles unfold in practice within cooperative organizations.

This recognition underscores the importance of research that is both academically rigorous and socially engaged—research that helps build more inclusive, fair, and transformative social economy practices.

Congratulations to the award-winning team!