Women Entrepreneurs Overcoming Barriers in Mexico Emilio Godoy - Inter Press Service
go to original March 10, 2013

MEXICO CITY - The culture of entrepreneurship is weak among women in Mexico, despite the positive influence that it has on women’s development, in a world where women continue to face greater obstacles than men when it comes to setting up and running a business.

Like in other countries of Latin America, women entrepreneurs in Mexico face institutional barriers and hurdles in access to training, financing and markets, which are added to the physical, sexual and economic violence they suffer, according to international and local studies.

“The majority of women entrepreneurs are in the non-agricultural sector, because women don’t have access to land, which means most of them are in more urbanised areas,” Marcia de Castro, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative in Mexico, told IPS.

In this country, entrepreneurs represent just under five percent of the economically active population. But of that proportion, only 2.4 percent are women, according to the World Bank.

Women represent 46 percent of the country’s economically active population of 50 million people.

In Latin America, on average, only three out of 10 entrepreneurs are women, according to the multilateral lender.

According to the national statistics institute, INEGI, seven million of Mexico’s 19 million households are female-headed, in a country of nearly 117 people.

In 2010, the income of male-headed households in urban areas averaged 780 dollars a month, compared to 507 dollars for female-headed households. In rural areas, the averages were 351 and 273 dollars a month, respectively.

Read the whole story at Inter Press Service

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