Women entrepreneurship and economic power important for the future

Women in entrepreneurship and its impact on the labour market in Barcelona was one of the main focuses when this long-awaited physical transnational meeting finally could be held. The meeting was meritoriously hosted by Barcelona Activa, with representation from the city of Barcelona as well as program representatives, both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. It was two days finally together in the network, with discussions, master classes, seminars and useful IAP peer plan-work. We learned to know a city with a long tradition to encourage women in entrepreneurship, and we learned how it could have effect on social transformation.

- Statistics about when women entrepreneurship raised and its positive impact on the labour market, are facts in studies that shows why projects like Gendered Landscape are so important for this progress, said Felix Ortega, Barcelona Activa CEO-Managing Director in his welcoming speech. And continued by stressing the fact that this is something that is very important for all countries, and all cities to work with, and continue to work with.  

Montse Basora, Entrepreneurship Operative Manager for Barcelona Activa and the Lidera Program, introduced Barcelona Activa to the participants. It is a public initiative to support the entrepreneurship initiative and has been going on for about 30 years. A co-working space where women that start their companies can get the necessary own spaces that are so important. Barcelona Activa, says Montse Basora, has a great progress and also support to create self jobs, and at some level financing.

LIDERA
From the very beginning, when Barcelona Activa started about thirty years ago, they supported and encouraged women to join initiatives and programmes that make gender equality progress. Advice and mentoring are in a program like Lidera very important, as well as special training with workshops and activities for female entrepreneurs.

One example is INICIO Programme with 900 participations. Another example is PD3-Fes el Canvi, that is in the area Leadership skills so that the can opt to managerial positions or greater responsibilities in organisations.

The future of the economy and the entrepreneurship
- Women are the future of the economy and the entrepreneurship in the city, stated Anna Mercadé, Expert in Women Entrepreneurship, in this Master Class. Based on statistics from Catalonia but also insights from McKinsey Institute for research, she pointed out that it is necessary to make it possible to combine a strategic work position with having a family. Women reinvest more in their environment and economy power for women are important for the welfare state, so this is necessary for the future and an equal society. But, still today, most strategic positions are held by men.

By Anna Mercadé we also got a short historic background, from the years fighting against Franco’s dictatorship, working with hundreds of women, most of them housewives in a programme that opened for women to become bus drivers during the 80ties and then helping women to create their first micro credits, because they couldn’t get it from the bank without having a guarantee from a man. 

Success stories from LIDERA
- You need to be your own orchestra, you need to know a little bit about everything, said Maria Isabel Gámez, engineer and entrepreneur, as well as specialist on data protection and IT security.

As a representant for INICIO she participated in a roundtable discussion with Lidera program entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. In INICIO she are part of helping start ups with i.a. strategies and risk managements.

Clarissa Ardon, with a Master in Business administration, coming from Guatemala, had other experiences to share and told us how she felt free in safe in Barcelona.

- Step by step I learned about programming Java Script, and I wanted to create a company that could combine retail with architecture and integrate that with programming. So I started in the IT Academy, to learn about programming Java Script, CCS and more.

Maria told us that she wanted to help other entrepreneurs to get started.

- If you have a team of “pillars” the start will be much more solid, she said.

Clarissa has now found her niche in life, and thinks that the IT Academy gave her the boost to try other things.

Maria says she don’t want any limits how she shall work and wants to do things her way.

- Solidarity is important but for me is the most important thing to have competent people around me, she stresses.

For Maria it has been quite clear that she as a woman can do whatever she want, perhaps that she have been surrounded by brothers helped, she said.  

- In my case it was a bit harder, said Clarissa, as I had to learn how to use my voice. But step by step I have learned to know and I think we need to change the attitudes to take these steps. In Guatemala it is different, behind the doors you want to open to go further on, there is nothing. Here in Barcelona, it is different.

The round table discussions came into gender labour market. The experiences are that you have to show more skills as a woman and it is also harder to know how you can scale up.

- In large projects, you need to show more skills than your male colleagues, and at some points it is useless. There is a glass ceiling, definitely, and companies launched or lead by women should do what they can to support in this area, said Maria.

- For me the scalability is hard, said Clarissa. First of all I have to get rid of my fear, and find out how I shall express myself. How I communicate and validate and revalidate is so important.

Gender perspective a part of every decision
Main regulatory tools that inspire managers in their work in the city council is one method for gender equality in a city.

- Gender perspective is now a part of every decision we take in Barcelona, said Laura de Caralt, Officer at the Gender policies department of the City Council of Barcelona and ULG member. She works at the Directorate from Gender Services and Time Balance in the City and told us about the obligatory training for senior management, “Economia Feminista”.

Laura told us about how they organize training for men and other staff to prevent sexual harassment on the grounds of gender and moral harassment. They also work with breaking the glass ceiling in the Barcelona City Police.

- We are going towards a new organisation of time and work, that have a holistic perspective. For example, we have the Barcelona award that we give to the most innovative company in work-life balance, said Laura.

Training in time policies, strategies and tools for key municipality staff are other examples. So, in the instruction during the lockdown for COVID-19, the policy tools had an internal and external impact on awareness

- In public procurement, an important strategic tool, we have equality clauses and we also have gender criteria for subsidies.

- To manage mandatory training we use to work very transparent, at least at the political level. We also work with mandatory training more in the European level, for public hiring, so we can see how the labour market works. Working face to face, is not the fastest strategy, but probably the most effective and therefor best, states Laura de Caralt.

Social economy and women
Neus Oriol, from La Bonne, presented a successful case. It is a cultural cluster and a feminist project, that around 2000 came into La bonne and is now the main pillar there with 100 procent women.

- We constantly want to analyse and rethink our main project, said Neus Oriol. Migrant women have to play a main and more proactive role.

Through jobs in the cleaning area, a need of another type of organisation came up. La Bonne had to give social procurement, to mobilize and get together with these migrant women, and therefor started to act to get these voices to be heard.

- It is a challenge to get these women organized, but we have worked together with different organisations and handled different languages, so that is an important factor to succeed, said Neus Oriol.

Col-lectiu Punt 6 was the next successful case presented, by Roser Casanoves. It is a feminist cooperative with urban experts, that come from different origins.

- We work in live spaces, like apartments and are in the daily lives. I have been working in this form for 15 years, so we were kind of pioneers by that time.

- It is talking about the social agenda in public spaces, putting the feminist perspective in this agenda and doing it in this format, said Roser. This is a way of looking at things in a different way.

- To achieve the changes we want to do in our institutions, we have different social levels in our city, for example our economic resources. Because we are so mixed, the institutions don’t know where to refer us for support.

- We have to change the normative structure. How we distribute the welfare, how we prioritize and implement the necessary changes are important. Even the small changes, like mobility. We have to transform our habits and our life expectations.