Toward Realizing the Potential of Latin America’s Women Entrepreneurs: An Analysis of Barriers and Challenges

The purpose of this study is to develop an overview of the Latin American women-owned business environment. Documentary research was conducted based on the factors of the Integrated Framework Assessment for an Enabling Environment for Women-Owned Businesses developed by the International Labor Organization, including access to credit and financial services, institutionalism, associations and women entrepreneurs’ networks, legal and regulatory framework, the distribution of the use of time, citizen security and gender-based violence, and promotion of entrepreneurship. The study concludes that even though there have been important initiatives related to these factors in Latin America and these issues have become important in political agendas, there has been uneven progress in different countries. Resumen El proposito de este estudio es desarrollar una vision general del entorno empresarial de las mujeres latinoamericanas. Se realizo una investigacion documental basada en los factores de la Evaluacion del Marco Integrado para un Entorno Habilitante para las Empresas Propiedad de Mujeres, desarrollada por la Organizacion Internacional del Trabajo, que incluye: acceso a servicios financieros y de credito; institucionalismo; asociaciones y redes de mujeres empresarias; marco legal y regulatorio; la distribucion del uso del tiempo; seguridad ciudadana y violencia de genero; y promocion del emprendimiento. El estudio concluyo que aunque ha habido iniciativas importantes relacionadas con estos factores en los paises latinoamericanos, y estas se han convertido en un tema importante en las agendas politicas, el progreso ha variado mucho en los diferentes paises.