Resilience and economic empowerment: Voices of female entrepreneurship

Abstract

Purpose: To comprehend the characteristics of the empowerment process of women entrepreneurs and how they experience it, to identify and highlight the social changes that are becoming increasingly evident.
Methodology: Using an exploratory qualitative strategy and conducting in-depth interviews in the settings where these entrepreneurs operate, experiences and reflections of six women from small and medium-sized businesses in Hidalgo, Mexico, were gathered.
Results: The women interviewed reported experiencing tensions in balancing their roles as heads of households and business owners. They faced gender stereotypes both within the family and workplace, as well as institutional structures not designed to serve small entrepreneurs - particularly women. Withing this context, their resilience is reinforced, serving as an expression of empowerment.
Implications: Resilience as part of the empowerment process is underexplored, opening new avenues for study. Empowerment is manifested in the satisfaction of being providers, capable of addressing the technical, relational, economic, and political difficulties of their activity, which have not been addressed by public policies.
Originality: The study corresponds with empirical exploration of the process by which women achieve empowerment. Unlike other studies, it recovers the voice and subjective experience of microentrepreneurs.