Entrepreneurs and empowered women: reflections on the Women Household Program of the National Service for Women and Gender Equity in Chile

Abstract

The article proposes a critical reflection on the design and execution of the Women Heads of Household Program of the National Service of Women and Gender Equity, in the commune of Futrono, Chile. This Program is part of a public policy that seeks the economic autonomy of vulnerable or in conditions of poverty women. The methodology used is based on analysis of official documents of the Women Heads of Household Program and, in addition, a reflection is made on my own work experience, as coordinator of this Program in the commune of Futrono, between 2015 and 2016. The main reflections allude to how the discourses on entrepreneurship and empowerment are being installed strongly in the subjectivities of the professionals who work in this program. The problem that I perceive is that these discourses are installed without a feminist perspective, which is why they become counterproductive to the demands of gender. In this regard, rather than seeking to achieve women's economic autonomy and social transformations to achieve equity, these hegemonic discourses associated with entrepreneurship and empowerment seek to adapt women to a neoliberal development model, which has historically maintained them in conditions of subordination.