The Challenges That Still Remain For Women and Entrepreneurship

In Latin America, over the last two years, there has been a boom of very successful ventures but it has yet to integrate more women. 

In recent years, Mexico has been the most prominent in entrepreneurship and Latin America, in general, has flourished and developed greatly in entrepreneurship.

 

In Mexico, there are four ‘unicorn’ companies for example - Clip, Kavak, Konfio, and Bitso - all valued at 1,000 million dollars or more, changing the sectors to which they identify with and the way your consumers live day in and day out. 

Yet again, this boom in Latin America is pending integrating more women. There are still few leaders present, even though the ecosystem is solid, with the presence of a variety of actors, from investment funds to entrepreneurs, universities, and accelerators. 

In Mexico, the INEGI (National Institute of Statistics and Geography) reveal that only 36% of women entrepreneurs own small and medium-sized enterprises, only covering 25% of the people working in those companies. Additionally, according to the World Bank, only one in three businesses are owned by women.

Besides the general issue of not integrating women, little by little more women are finding their way into entrepreneurship, starting businesses that are on the way to being very successful. Some examples are women who started in beauty, technology, accessories, and many more segments. Some are achieving new investment rounds and growing on a regional scale. 

The income level of countries is key in the economic reactivation, it is positively correlated with the participation of women as owners and entrepreneurs of their businesses. Throughout Latin America, in terms of entrepreneurship, women are starting to lead more Mexican companies, in a movement that doesn’t stay within its borders.

What can be done to make this integration progress faster? There are multiple factors that can give positive results quickly. 

First, it is mandatory to work on education, mentoring, and training issues. Innovation needs valuable ideas that can be shown through coordination, organization, and knowledge of the leadership, capital raising, and work team, among different situations. They require the abilities, skills, capacities, and knowledge of women entrepreneurs. 

The issue of access to capital for women-owned companies is substantial. An ecosystem is mandatory to be able to promote, prosper, scale startups, and accelerate. Venture capital funds are the most important sources of financing for entrepreneurs, helping produce more innovations and of greater quality. 

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