PRESS RELEASE

20th Edition of the Fidem Awards

‘The failure rate of female entrepreneurs is lower because women are able to reinvent themselves and persevere more than men’

• Fidem (Fundació Internacional de la Dona Emprenedora) distinguishes the talent of eight female business owners and entrepreneurs that contribute notoriety to the business world
• Women occupy only 11.8% of the leading positions in Spain, compared to 88.2% held by men
• Fidem and Maters promote the Transversal Table, a working group that aims to achieve tangible social co-responsibility.

Barcelona, November 9th 2017. Today, Thursday November 9th at 7pm, the 20TH EDITION OF THE FIDEM AWARDS were celebrated in the auditorium of the Caixa Forum, which distinguish those female entrepreneurs or executives who have played a significant role in companies in our country. The most influential women of economics, science, social initiatives and technology have been awarded by their peers for their contribution to the visibility and notoriety of women in the business world. The awards ceremony was carried out by women who stand out and have stood out for their professional careers, such as the Cofounder of Holaluz, Carlota Pi Amorós; the Dean of the College of Journalists, Neus Bonet; the Managing Director of the Catalan Institute of Health and the ICO, Candela Calle; the Director of the Catalan Women’s Institute, Núria Ramón; the Deputy General Director of FBLC, Elisa Durán; the Honorary President of Fidem, M. Ángeles Tejada; the Director of Human Resources at Penguin Random House, Marta Grau and the General Director of Equality, Mireia Mata. The presenter for the gala was journalist Clara Sánchez-Castro Bonfill.

The winners of this 20th Edition of the Fidem Awards are: in the category of Social Entrepreneurship, Ana Bella, president of the Ana Bella Foundation; in Professional Career, Marta Rota, Creative Director of Tot-Hom; in Innovation, Helena Torras, Cofounder and CEO of Bwom; in Internationalization, Lídia Claramunt, owner of Magnifique Brands; in Co-responsibility, Stephanie Marko, Founder and CEO of Stikets; in Technology, Mar Alarcón, Founder and CEO of Social Car; in Family Business, Cristina Pont, Finance Director of Frapont and in Entrepreneurship, Maribel Bernales and Lorna Gotlib, owners of El Colorao. http://fidem.info/ca/849-premis-fidem-2017-xx-edicio

Fidem and Maters will promote the Transversal Table

The President of the Fidem Foundation, Joana Amat, explained that, “Fidem and Maters, in February 2018, will promote a working group, named the Transversal Table, to which other leading female organizations have already been joining. It will be a working group that brings together the business world, various institutions, organizations and civil society with the objective of achieving the legal but, above all, cultural changes necessary so that women are increasingly incorporated into companies in order to achieve full and tangible social co-responsibility. The world of entrepreneurship is exciting, but creating a business is not easy. And at FIDEM, we know this from experience. For this reason, each year the Foundation accompanies 20 new businesses, helps with technical training and with the search for financing. We will begin a mentoring relationship that will last 18 months, with emotional support and coaching within the ‘If you want to, you can’ program, to ensure maximum success for each project,” clarifies Joana Amat.

“Many times the new entrepreneur must fight against her own environment, spouses, family and friends which, instead of acting as a driving force, are instead a constant headwind, generating doubt simply because the entrepreneur is female, who is truly able to create a business and maintain a completely normal family life. Leading women often achieve their positions based on extreme sacrifice with regard to their personal life and take on a role as a super woman, responding to all professional and family challenges and taking responsibility for nearly everything. This has been the model of the 20th century, that of conciliation, but it is in no way the 21st century model.

We, at Fidem, want to go a step further,” added Joana Amat, “and advance from family co-responsibility to social co-responsibility, since it is the responsibility and necessity of a nation to continue to have children without losing 50% of the talent that women bring to the labor market. Only when this has been achieved will we start to talk about equal opportunities, equal pay and, ultimately, real equality.

To achieve this goal, from the Transversal Table, a group of 10 professionals from different fields and sectors will be working together to help promote the necessary actions and initiatives to make this a reality. At present, and for some years, women occupy only 11.8% of executive positions in Spain. This is a clear decrease in relation to 2009 when this figure was 19.5%, because the economic crisis has worsened this situation of inequality, increasing the wage gap and reducing the recruitment of female executives. Instead, we have studied,” concludes Amat, “that the failure rate of the female entrepreneur is lower than that of men because, in general, women reinvent themselves and persevere better than men. It is the job of all of us to give visibility to these anonymous executives who, from their positions, lead as females.”

About the Fidem Foundation

Fidem (Fundació Internacional de la Dona Emprenedora) was founded in 1996 to provide visibility and finance projects for female entrepreneurs who, despite their initiative and best efforts, encounter difficulties achieving their goals. Today, four out of every ten entrepreneurs are women, thus women play an increasingly important role in entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, there remains tremendous potential to develop, and women, like any entrepreneur, need support and guidance to launch a new business venture or grow their existing business. Through networking, training, and mentoring as well as its entrepreneurship programs, FIDEM wants to promote and provide visibility to women’s business activities as an agent of social and economic development. For some years Fidem has promoted internationalization and promotes other key aspects of today’s society, such as the importance of values or the power that executives have in the social and economic fabric of our country. http://www.fidem.info/ca/.

For more information:

Press Office // Eva Arderiu Pi GsM: 686370793