15 years ago, less than 10% of business was dedicated to women. How can we bring gender equality in the business sphere? Leda Böger brings solutions.
Leda is the Executive Director of the Instituto Consulado da Mulher, an initiative set up by Whirlpool Latin America. This project aims to emancipate women, accompanying them on the path of entrepreneurship. And it is a striking success as women, participating in this project, saw their income increased of 66% between the beginning and the end of the program.
What are for you the core principles of a responsible economy?
The responsible economy is something that have to include all the people, different cultures and languages. When we talk about economy, we talk about how to enrich ourselves. When we talk about responsible economy, we have to talk about the planet, about the resources, about environment and mostly about the well-being of the people.
Can you develop an example of an entrepreneurial project helped by the Instituto Consultado Da Mulher ?
We have more than 400 projects located in Brazil. We used to work with small communities, for example afro-american ones. These communities were slaves many years ago. Nowadays, they are descendants of these slaves. We worked with some of these communities to help them to keep their culture in terms of food. The food has the power to replicate the traditions. You can share your culture through your habits on food. We helped some of these groups on developing and selling products. The idea was to turn women’s abilities into a business which generates income.
During your speech, you said “find your own purpose and go for it”, what is your purpose?
When I was young, I had a dream on “how can I make a difference in the world”? Sometimes, I thought that I was too small to do something. But then, I started to do some volunteering. I put my feet on the ground, I look to the people and I felt that there was something here for me. That was my real purpose: to be together with people, to make a difference for them. You and I are privileged people, we have access to the school, to the food, to higher education. Then, when you can go and help people, you take your part in the responsible revolution. Purpose is something very personal but you have to find what really matters for you, what makes you really happy, and go for it. The final aim is to have peace in your mind.
What do you expect from your three days at the World Forum for a Responsible Economy 2017?
There are different experiences here, different thoughts, people from different places and we always learn from others. I also expect to share my small experience, to make some connections with other speakers and, of course, to know a bit more about your beautiful country because there is a lot of history, paintings and architecture here!
22B - Justine Moynat
