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🇨🇱 Chile /Economy & Trade

Women in Chile turn to entrepreneurship because other options are running out

From Cooperativa · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Interview Named sources Context piece
  • Fundación Crecer executive director María José Madariaga said many Chilean women enter business because they lack other ways to earn income and carry heavy care responsibilities.
  • She said 60% of women formalize businesses because of economic need, while informal workers, particularly female heads of household, often perform multiple survival-based activities.
  • Fundación Crecer supports women with administrative tools, digital literacy and guidance, as 80% of microentrepreneurs manage the entire production process alone.

For many Chilean women, starting a business is less a choice than a way to cope with limited alternatives and the weight of unpaid care work. María José Madariaga, executive director of Fundación Crecer, described that reality on Cooperativa's program “Esa es la Idea.”

Madariaga said 60% of women formalize their businesses because of financial hardship. “Their reality tends to be less happy, a context that pushes them to undertake, to become self-employed, so they can generate income,” she said.

Their reality tends to be less happy, a context that pushes them to undertake, to become self-employed, so they can generate income.

· María José MadariagaShe explained why economic hardship drives many women to formalize businesses.

She identified informality as another major challenge. Conditions are especially difficult for female heads of household, whose work can change from one moment to the next and remain closely tied to survival. “They are scattered activities depending on the moment, very closely linked to subsistence,” Madariaga said.

They are scattered activities depending on the moment, very closely linked to subsistence.

· María José MadariagaShe described the informal work undertaken by many female heads of household.

Fundación Crecer works with these women through administrative training, digital literacy and ongoing support. The aim is to ensure they do not have to manage their productive activities entirely alone. Madariaga said 80% of microentrepreneurs handle the entire production process by themselves.

She also pointed to a cultural shift in how women view their own projects and authority. “There is a willingness to know oneself and assume oneself as the boss,” she said, describing that change as a foundation for independent work to improve family living standards.

There is a willingness to know oneself and assume oneself as the boss.

· María José MadariagaShe highlighted a cultural change in women's relationship with their own businesses.
About this summary

Originally published by Cooperativa in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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