Gender equality and social impact are gaining significant research attention in marketing. This paper investigates the impact of recruiting rural women microentrepreneurs on acquiring consumers and delivering value to them. We study the outcomes from a quasi-experiment in which a social enterprise recruited a group of women to become microentrepreneurs in 91 out of 164 locations (panchayats) across rural districts in India. We show that the rural locations with more women than men microentrepreneurs experienced a 40.8% increase in consumer acquisition and delivered 64.1% greater value to their consumers. Moreover, these locations with more women than men microentrepreneurs delivered $5,445 more value for women consumers. Men microentrepreneurs who work in inclusive settings with other women microentrepreneurs delivered $25,100 more value to their consumers than men microentrepreneurs working in predominantly male-work environments. This research contributes to the intersection of marketing, social entrepreneurship, and gender dynamics, underscoring the importance of empowering women for better marketing and societal outcomes.

性别平等和社会影响正在引起市场营销研究的广泛关注。本文研究了招募农村女性微型企业家对吸引消费者并为他们创造价值的影响。我们研究了一项准实验的结果，在该实验中，一家社会企业在印度农村地区 164 个地点 (panchayats) 中的 91 个地点招募了一群女性成为微型企业家。我们发现，女性微型企业家多于男性微型企业家的农村地区，消费者获取量增加了 40.8%，为消费者带来的价值增加了​​ 64.1%。此外，这些女性微型企业家多于男性微型企业家的地点为女性消费者带来了 5,445 美元的更多价值。与其他女性微型企业家在包容性环境中工作的男性微型企业家比在以男性为主的工作环境中工作的男性微型企业家为消费者多创造了 25,100 美元的价值。这项研究有助于营销、社会创业和性别动态的交叉，强调赋予女性权力以实现更好的营销和社会成果的重要性。