Women Reinvent Themselves During the Pandemic Thanks To Their 3 Superpowers

February
8, 2021

4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

“A woman is like a tea bag, you never know how strong she is until she is in hot water”

Eleonor Roosevelt

Around 1.3 million women with micro-businesses lost their income and just over 3 million of them were forced out of the labor market due to the pandemic, according to the National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE) of July 2020. Almost one year after the start of the pandemic, data like this has only increased and there is no bright future in sight.

Although it is true that the job cuts and the closure of companies affected women and men equally, reintegration into activities after losing their job has been more complicated for us, since the responsibilities we now have in the homes have been increased, since in addition to our daily work with the closure of schools we have to participate to a large extent in the education of our children, some even have the responsibility of caring for the elderly.

In addition to the above, the search for your income has become a titanic task in this new context because the archaic work culture in our country makes it more difficult every day by not being aware and flexible with this new reality that we are living. .

To make matters worse, it is important to mention that the pandemic generated a transit in the distribution of jobs in Mexico, imagine, part of the positions that were occupied by women are now occupied by men, we went from 23 million paid subordinate positions to almost 40 million.

The foregoing has ratified what throughout history women have had to demonstrate their capabilities in a double effort compared to men, our group, which is the group most affected during the pandemic, has managed to reinvent itself, since it has caused that develop the three superpowers that has made us an unstoppable genre.

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Creativity, resilience, determination

These superpowers are predominant in women who seek to make ends meet to improve their living conditions and that of their family, who in any environment, however challenging it may be, use their creativity to provide solutions, adapt effectively and quickly to changes with a positive attitude, learning with the assurance that what they are doing is what they should do.

I want to take as an example two groups of women, one of them is the group of women who live from day to day and who have found themselves in need of self-employment, using their creativity and talents as their only resource to start businesses such as sales of catalog products. , food and craft businesses, to name a few.

• Related: Women entrepreneurs are the engine that drives the post-pandemic economic recovery in Latin America, according to study

On the other hand, there are the women who lost their executive positions and have managed to survive thanks to their savings or lines of credit; Most of the latter group have made the decision to start a business, sometimes informally, without training in business development, undertaking based on a trial and error scheme that limits them to rapid and organized growth.

I want to invite you to follow the secret formula that organically enterprising women have taken. It is time to give shape to your dreams, the crisis has forced us to uncover them and make them come true, but now time is pressing us to make them come true.

Perhaps you are already familiar with these superpowers without realizing it, but now is your opportunity to give them structure to potentiate that great idea. I share some steps that can help you:

1. Get trained, there is a lot of information that you can consult
2. Do a self-knowledge exercise, analyze what talent you have and work on it
3. Research the consumption trends for this 2021, how can you adapt your proposal to the demand?
4. Have a vision that describes your business plans in a defined time
5. Work on an annual budget and separate your personal finances

I invite you to apply your superpowers in 2021, so that you can transform your wishes into purposes and they become reality. The entrepreneurship path is not for everyone, but just because it is difficult does not mean that it is impossible. Besides these superpowers, what else do you identify in yourself?

I would love to know your story, this month I will be sharing your super power on my social networks.

@zairazepedah

* Zaira Zepeda is CEO and founder of Local Trendy, an interior design and event design company.