El crecimiento económico de los emprendimientos de mujeres y su aporte al desarrollo local del cantón Pedernales.

Abstract

The economic growth of women's enterprises has a direct impact on local development, since in order to achieve a more solid and prosperous community, it is necessary to consider factors that go beyond income generation, such as cohesion among its actors and elements, since without it, positive results remain unattainable. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the economic growth of women's enterprises and their contribution to local development in the canton of Pedernales. This, through a mixed methodology that combines qualitative and quantitative approaches, where surveys were conducted to women entrepreneurs, having a sample of 155 of them, in addition to this, interviews were applied (1) along with observation sheets (3) to certain enterprises, using analytical, deductive and inductive methods to interpret the data obtained. Thus, the results showed that 44% of the women entrepreneurs consider financial barriers as the main challenge to the growth of their businesses, while 31% identify lack of time for their business due to family responsibilities as their main barrier or limiting factor. Despite these, 41% of the respondents reported an increase in their standard of living after becoming entrepreneurs. In conclusion, it was determined that the economic growth of women's entrepreneurship in the canton of Pedernales not only improves the individual economic conditions of the entrepreneurs themselves, but also stimulates local development (by generating employment, improving community collaboration and strengthening community adaptation).