Una empresa propia: Retos y oportunidades para el emprendimiento femenino en Cataluña

Every company begins long before it exists.

It begins with an idea, with an identified opportunity, or with the desire to build something of one’s own. However, between imagining a project and turning it into a real company lies a long journey, full of decisions, uncertainties, and learning experiences.

That journey is not the same for everyone.

In the case of women, the entrepreneurial process is often shaped by specific challenges that frequently go unnoticed: less access to funding, more limited professional networks, fewer visible role models, or greater doubts about their own ability to become entrepreneurs. It is not only about deciding to create a company, but also about finding the conditions that make it possible and sustaining the project over time.

Una empresa propia analyzes this journey through data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and the experiences of women entrepreneurs and professionals within Catalonia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The essay shows how gender differences do not emerge only at the moment of business creation, but are gradually built throughout the entire entrepreneurial process.

Female entrepreneurial talent is there. The question is whether the environment is prepared for more women to turn that talent into businesses.