Empreendedorismo feminino como estratégia de desenvolvimento local: a experiência do programa Mulheres, Anjo e Empreendedoras (MAE)

Abstract

Entrepreneurship implies the creation of new ideas, products, processes or markets, capable of generating value and business opportunities, providing quality of life and social well-being. Female entrepreneurship has grown around the world and in Brazil, mainly in low-income communities, mostly as a matter of necessity. The sociocultural complexity and economic specificities that involve entrepreneurship require more studies and concrete programs and actions that meet the demands of low-income populations, especially women entrepreneurs. The Women Angel Entrepreneurs Program - MAE sought, through a pilot project, to develop a methodological scope aimed at entrepreneurial training and enabling business initiatives for women from underprivileged communities in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador that, ultimately, could be reproduced and transformed into a public policy to promote female entrepreneurship. The challenge involved a series of questions regarding its form and content that were summarized in the following research problem: Taking into account the experience of the MAE Program, what guidelines should base the promotion of female entrepreneurship as a local development strategy? As a general objective, we sought to identify the approaches necessary to meet the specificities of promoting female entrepreneurship in low-income communities as a local development strategy. The work as an approach method can be classified as inductive, based on a case study. It is also a descriptive research that used bibliographical research procedures, searching for materials already published on the theoretical categories of entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurship and local development, in addition to the use of reports from entrepreneurship support entities such as Serviço Brasileiro de Support for Micro and Small Businesses (Sebrae) and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), among others. The field research was structured as an action research in which the researcher was part of the Program's organizing team, having followed the trajectory of all participating entrepreneurs. Finally, the effectiveness of the MAE program was verified as a local development strategy, capable of directing the guidelines for the elaboration of a public policy that can favor and welcome women entrepreneurs from low-income communities, through the adoption of a more flexible methodology. simplified, incorporating soft skills components and the creation of a psychosocial support network for entrepreneurs. The researcher carried out participant observation, through the study of the reality of the communities involved without interfering in decisions. Finally, the effectiveness of the MAE program as a local development strategy, capable of directing the guidelines for the elaboration of a public policy that can favor and welcome women entrepreneurs from low-income communities.