The European Union recognizes the importance of women entrepreneurship in the European Region. In particular, mumpreneurship is on the scope and promoted, today more than ever.
The term mumpreneurship is a recent term that refers to women that are mothers and that want to become entrepreneurs. The reason why this is such an important matter is due to the fact that mothers are usually not trusted as entrepreneurs. This goes against all European policies and it is something that needs to be fixed as soon as possible.
European projects like the FEMME project are focusing on bringing down those walls of discrimination and making sure that women and especially mothers are going to be given the opportunities they deserve to build their own businesses and become entrepreneurs.
The FEMME project has much information to offer regarding the current situation in Europe. A lot of actions were taken under the project to make sure that women will learn how to start building their own business and promote their work.
In particular, in the region of Thessaly, initiatives and best practices are able to give women the tools they need to start their journey. Some strong example is the ‘’Yiam’’ action, a best practice focusing on encouraging entrepreneurship among women. Yiam is an e-business that is located in a rural village near to Larissa, called Agia. This female e-business sells a variety of agricultural products that Mrs. Avra Panousopoulou, the owner, makes her house. Products like jams, sauces, preserves, and pickles. In the begging, she was selling her products in stores, and then she created the e-shop. She already had her products, so she thought to sell them through e-commerce because it was difficult for her to have a physical store. The site was created from someone experienced who taught her, in just a few steps, how to use it and how to manage it. She didn’t have any kind of experience in e-commerce before, but it wasn’t difficult for her to learn.
| Another great example of the mumpreneurship actions in the region of Thessaly is ‘’O SOFRAS’’. The Livadi Social Women Cooperative, bearing the name “O Sofras”, was founded in 2002 in order to highlight and build on the excellent quality of local products. The location of the Association is in the village Livadi of the Olympus mountain, one of the most beautiful and crowded mountain villages of the region of Thessaly. |
In the admittedly difficult task of funding the cooperative, the women-members were subsidized by the Greek Labor Force Employment Agency and the Ministry of Rural Development and Food. Precious advisers and assistants for their efforts were the members of local government and all bodies of the mountainous municipality. The Livadi Social Women Cooperative from the beginning of its operation until today develops activities that cover the entire spectrum of production, processing, and marketing of agricultural products.
The Association maintains a restaurant named “The Sofras” in the village center, opposite of the Town Hall. The same area also houses the laboratory where all local dishes and other products are being prepared, such as pasta and pastries. The cooperative counts several participations in regional and nationwide competitions. The aim of the members by participating in these events is their continuous training and the promotion of the cooperative.
These are just some of the many different important actions takes every year to promote mumpreneurship and entrepreneurship among women. FEMME is a very strong project but not the only one. Visit the EU official website and make sure that you will learn everything there is to know about women entrepreneurship. If you are a woman and want to build your own business, you have everything you need to do it!
