Everyone knows that Brazil imposes an exacerbated difficulty for those who want to undertake, and this challenge is even greater when it comes to female entrepreneurship. In order to understand who they are and what challenges these Brazilian women face, the National Confederation of Shopkeepers (CNDL) and the Credit Protection Service (SPC), in partnership with Sebrae, carried out the survey “Women Entrepreneurs”, which reached business and service business owners in all capitals Brazilian.
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The average age of these women is 41 years, according to the survey. Almost half of them are married or in a stable union (45%) and another 53% do not have partners. And yet, for every 10 businesswomen, seven have a family income of one to five minimum wages (71%).
“Women's difficulty in getting a good wage, even with more education, is even more evident when compared to men. This situation is an indicator of the persistent gender inequality in Brazil, despite the movement towards the inclusion of women in the workforce, particularly in the business world,” points out Merula Borges, finance specialist at CNDL.
Profile of businesses led by women
Dealing with the profile of the businesses that have women in front of them, commerce is the sector in which there is the most female presence. In this case, the segments of food (39%), clothing (20%) and cosmetics (11%) stand out. When we talk about the service sector, the performance is mainly in the beauty segment (60%).
Most of these businesses were started less than two years ago (22%). Furthermore, the percentage of businesses that were born in the pandemic (24%) is higher among classes C/D/E.
“These data are consistent with the reasons that lead women to become entrepreneurs, the main one being the need due to lack of employment. Thus, it is likely that many of the new businesses have emerged as a result of the impact of the pandemic, which has increased job shortages and forced part of women, especially those with lower incomes, to look for alternatives to survive", highlights José César da Costa, president of the CNDL.
The average operating time of these companies in the market reaches 7 years, being longer among women from classes A/B and formalized companies.
“This combination of results indicates that low-income women – and who probably do not have good access to information and other resources – are less successful than upper class women in maintaining the company/business working. In addition, companies that have been operating for a longer period tend towards formalization. It is difficult to suggest here the causal relationship, that is, whether companies are mature because they formalized or if they end up formalizing after becoming mature. Anyway, the fact is that both factors go hand in hand”, explains Merula Borges.
Another important point is that, nowadays, the number of self-employed women entrepreneurs reaches 73%, and this action takes place without the collaboration of employees.
61% are informal
Most women entrepreneurs, approximately 6 out of 10 (61%), do not have a CNPJ and work informally, even more so in the case of low-income women (C/D/E). Among them, there is a predominant opinion that it is more valid to wait for the business to grow and consolidate before formalizing it (37%). On the other hand, there are those who believe that formalization is not financially worth it (35%).
“A consequence of this profile is that the businesses of Brazilian entrepreneurs have, for the most part, a very simple structure: they started with little resources, usually coming from the women's own personal economy, it has a basic structure, with few or no employees, and they work mostly in the informality. The formalization of the business is of vital importance for its maturation and survival, in addition to providing guarantees important to the entrepreneur, such as access to credit and security in old age with retirement", highlights the specialist.