More than half of the 1,500 Latin Americans who participated in a survey began to work independently during the covid-19 pandemic to contribute financially to their family, those responsible for the survey reported Monday.
The “Empowered Women” survey, published by the American cosmetics and perfume company Avon and the Avon Foundation for Women, brought together “1,500 entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial women between the ages of 25 and 55 residing in 11 Latin American countries to meet his voice”, said the general manager of Avon Clúster Andino, María Adelaida Saldarriaga, in Bogotá.
The objective of the analysis -which was carried out in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay- was to produce information at the regional level and by country to show what are the obstacles that women have at the time of the undertaking.
Among the findings, it stands out that 62% of all respondents have their own business or work independently.
Also, it was shown that one out of every three entrepreneurs combines her independent work with a dependency job and that, likewise, one out of every three is the main breadwinner in the household.
Of the total number of respondents, six out of 10 have their own business, mostly one-person or small enterprises that do not exceed five employees.
70% of women believe that they have not yet achieved their professional development goals, and 7 out of 10 point out that the success of independent work is achieved by achieving a balance between work and personal life.
“The pandemic pushed many women to undertake either because they lost their jobs, to take advantage of their free time because they realized that it is time to do something productive or because they spent that time with an abuser and want to get out of that situation. circle of abuse”, explained Carolina Henao, director of the Avon Foundation for Women for Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
When analyzing the results, it was established that money was the main obstacle to entrepreneurship.
Then, Henao deepened, “we found that time is another impediment because the woman continues to leave herself for later since the priority is to attend to the family.”
Also, nine out of 10 entrepreneurs consider mistakes as a source of learning; four out of 10 believe that being too emotional is the main problem that affects their work relationships, and one out of 3 thinks that she must face the prejudice of having achieved work success in exchange for sexual favors.
Understanding the above, Henao considered that “more important than having women selling beauty products is giving them the financial independence that they demand so much because it will allow them to fight against the violence to which they have been subjected and take another step towards empowerment and equity”.