by Ana Laura Cárdenas
Since last August, about 50 women from four communities in the district of Desamparados, San Jose, Costa Rica, have received Business management training with a gender perspective for women’s entrepreneurship. The training is funded by the National Program of Support to Small and Medium Enterprise (PRONAMYPE), of the Banco Popular, in coordination with the Municipality of Desamparados and consultant Patricia Oliva.
The training course is divided into nine workshops in which the women, guided by instructors, develop their business idea and learn the necessary administrative and accounting tools that will enable them to successfully manage the business in the future. Unlike other courses in microenterprise, the emphasis in gender training seeks to empower the participants and encourage them to overcome individual and social gender stereotypes that often limit women in developing a business plan and getting it off the ground.
The training ends next week and attendees will receive a certificate of participation from the mayor of Desamparados, Mauren Fallas, and Banco Popular officials.
*Ana Laura Cardenas is a Mexican journalist who has focused her work on investigating women’s social movements. She has worked as a reporter for newspapers and on television in her native country. Ana is currently studying a Masters in Women’s Studies at the University of Costa Rica and working as a freelance journalist in Costa Rica.
