In Córdoba, Argentina, the pay gap between men and women is 32%. As well as being paid less, women occupy more roles in care work than men (42% more) and occupy 20% more unpaid household work roles.
For those who identify as female, one of the ways to change this economic reality is to set up their own businesses. So that they are able to support themselves economically in an autonomous way.
However, the situation of inequality creates major barriers for these people to access the training and support spaces needed to strengthen entrepreneurship and make it sustainable and scalable.
The current entrepreneurial tools were not created in light of gender inequality, which makes incubation and acceleration a hostile and exclusive space for those who identify as female.
The Incubadora Feminista Latinoamericana was born as an empathetic and safe place that provides incubation and economic strengthening programmes to self-managed organisations and enterprises led by women and diversities. The aim is to strengthen these organizations and to help them achieve economic autonomy. To do so, they create and adapt conventional incubation tools and methodologies that incorporate the gender perspective in an intersectional way.
All the ventures and organisations already work with a gender perspective, many also have a feminist political identification bringing women and other marginaliized groups to the forefront.
They have supported the following initiatives:
- Asociación Con Voz: NGO that works providing psychological and legal assistance to victims of gender-based violence.
- Púrpura Lingerie: Non-hegemonic lingerie for women and non-conforming bodies.
- Repúblico: co-working of local artists, providing collaborative spaces for artists in need of production space.
- Coop. La Victoria: work cooperative for urban waste pickers and recyclers.
- L’enfant terrible: self-managed media.
- Kurmi: cosmetics and organic care products.
The incubator’s goal to make the entrepreneurial ecosystem uncomfortable, seeking to raise awareness of existing inequalities in order to stimulate change.
According to the founders, the feminist political position expressed loudly, problematises then issue. It’s about raising awareness of the issue to make sure that it reaches the top of the agenda.
The positive impact generated for those involves creating spaces of trust where they can expose their problems knowing that there will be someone who will listen to them without judging, trusting, and accompanying them in the development of their entrepreneurial potential.
To date, 30 female entrepreneurs, more than 85 colleagues from institutions in the Latin American entrepreneurial ecosystem, 6 organisations and 3 start-ups have benefited.
Finally, the incubator forms a network that allows it to continue to grow and connect in pursuit of its purpose as an organisation. For example, they have promoted an initiative called “We Start”. A programme for the promotion and awareness of the entrepreneurial mindset in STEM students carried out together with the Mujeres en Tecnología community, ASETEC and the Consultora E Género y Diversidad. Through the programme, 160 young women between 18 and 25 years old were reached.
What makes the incubator special? They are transparent in their political positioning and work from the recognition of the gaps, asking questions, acting accordingly, and betting on a collective construction of knowledge (and answers).
