Every 19 November, International Women’s Entrepreneurship Day is celebrated, a date to highlight not only the achievements but also the persistent inequalities faced by women in accessing decent economic opportunities. In Latin America, thousands of women support productive initiatives, community networks and feminist organising processes that challenge exclusionary economic models and demand structural change.
As part of the FAME project – Feminisms, Action and Mobilisation for an Inclusive Economy, accompanied by CARE and CONLACTRAHO, we are sharing two videos produced by partner organisations that are part of the grant mechanism. Their testimonies show how organisational strengthening, access to training and resources, and feminist coordination make it possible to challenge narratives, exert political influence and promote economic alternatives that put life at the centre.
🎥 Video 1: 19N – Women’s Coordinator
This video presents the reflections of Coordinadora de la Mujer, a Bolivian civil society organisation that denounces the economic gaps faced by women and advocates entrepreneurship as a tool for autonomy, but also as a space to demand labour rights, social protection and gender-focused public policies.
🎥 Video 2: Tertulia Feminista 19N
In this second testimony, Tertulia Feminista, a partner in the Dominican Republic, addresses how entrepreneurship can generate income and strengthen community ties, while highlighting the structural barriers that persist: wage inequality, informality, unpaid care work and intersectional discrimination.
On this date, it is important to remember that women’s entrepreneurship cannot be romanticised or separated from the structural conditions that affect it. Women often become entrepreneurs because they are excluded from the labour market and the state does not guarantee sufficient rights. For this reason, the support provided by FAME and its grant mechanism is not limited to promoting productive projects: it seeks to strengthen political capacities, empower feminist leadership and accompany collective advocacy to transform the inequalities that create the need to become entrepreneurs in adverse conditions.
On this International Day of Women Entrepreneurship, rather than celebrating, we call for recognition of the daily work of these organisations that demand economic justice, inclusive public policies and care systems that enable women to become entrepreneurs based on rights, not precariousness.
