By | Carmen Correa
For women, the act of starting a business is not always a choice motivated by opportunity, but rather by necessity. Latin America and the Caribbean is the region with the highest number of businesses started by women, with a rate of 21.2%.
However, 82.2% of women decide to start a business due to the lack of formal job opportunities (GEM). Moreover, 25.3% of women in the region lack their own income, which limits their ability to make autonomous decisions in their homes and communities (GEM).
This challenge is reflected in the nature of their ventures. For example, 28% of female entrepreneurs who have completed our entrepreneurial training program, Emprende Pro Mujer, are in the food and beverage sector, while 22% are involved in the production and/or sale of clothing and textiles. Another 14% is concentrated in ventures related to health and beauty. Women are still over-represented in low-productivity sectors, so it is important to support them in accessing sectors with greater growth and value-generation potential.
At Pro Mujer, after more than 34 years working closely with women in the region to help them reach their full potential, we recognize that empowering entrepreneurs involves more than providing them with business management training opportunities.
Recognizing the complexity of their needs, it is essential that we adopt a comprehensive approach to supporting women. This entails a collaborative effort involving leaders from various ecosystems in order to ensure their equitable participation in the labor market, facilitate their access to the formal financial system, and improve their digital skills to expand their businesses.
A holistic model for empowerment
For women to become a powerful catalyst for change in their families and communities, it is crucial to respond to their current needs and demands. That is why at Pro Mujer we operate under a holistic model, betting on women’s health and well-being, their education, and their financial autonomy.
Through our services, in 2023:
- We made a difference in the lives of +428,000 people
- We offered over 480,000 health services
- We boosted the development of activities for over 208,500 women entrepreneurs
- We offered financial services to over 184,000 women
Our bet is also centered on expanding women’s financial opportunities through our gender-focused product offerings that adapt to the contexts and possibilities of each woman. Currently, we offer women access to microloans, and we’ve created innovative financial mechanisms that directly address the existing structural financial gap.
One of our biggest achievements in 2023 was that of becoming the first non-traditional player to issue two gender bonds in Argentina and the region. As a result, we have provided +3,400 credits to women through these mechanisms, allowing us to provide support at every step of the process.
Addressing the needs of less digitally literate women
The gender digital gap in Latin America is a significant obstacle that perpetuates inequalities and limits women’s entrepreneurship. Even though the region ranks fourth globally in internet penetration, still a 33% of its population remains disconnected.
This disconnection is worse in rural areas, where the disparity in internet use between urban and rural areas reaches up to 25%, and even 40% in some countries (ECLAC). This scenario underscores the critical need to adopt an intersectional approach that simultaneously addresses digital and gender divides.
In response to this reality, since 2022, Pro Mujer has strengthened its commitment to Indigenous, rural, and vulnerable women who lead productive activities in Mexico and Central America. We achieve this through Emprende Pro Mujer’s hybrid model, which incorporates face-to-face training sessions guided by facilitators who are experts in fieldwork.
This model, which uses an intersectional approach to reach women with limited digital access, has benefited more than 3,600 women since its implementation. This impact demonstrates that, by providing the right tools, women can forge a future in which their dreams come true.
The importance of a sustainable care system
It is crucial to pay urgent attention to care work, a predominantly female and mostly informal sector. According to ECLAC data, 77.5% of women employed in this sector earn half or less of the average income, operating in the informal economy. Despite this, the economic contribution of care work is considerable: women, who make up 70% of the workforce in this sector, contribute 20% to the gross domestic product of the region.
To change this dynamic, we need to implement care systems that are financially sustainable, that offer access and quality, and that give these jobs their proper value, integrating a gender approach that recognizes and compensates women’s work in all their roles.
At Pro Mujer, our mission is to promote a more just and equitable Latin America so that women can be financially independent and pursue entrepreneurship by choice, not out of necessity.