Núria, Andrea, Georgina, and Carme are women entrepreneurs who have been through Autoocupació. They have launched their projects in very different professional fields, but they all share a common element: They have managed to make their move and challenge the obstacles that many women encounter in the workplace.
Male-Dominated Professions
Toys, leisure activities, and colors often have a gender. Jobs do too. There are masculinized sectors, traditionally occupied by men, and sectors primarily occupied by women.
Nevertheless, there are professionals who defy the statistics and work in sectors predominantly occupied by the opposite gender. This is the case of Núria Jané, entrepreneur of the project Simpatik Films, an audiovisual production company founded in 2012, entering the audiovisual world, a highly competitive sector with a broad male representation in the more technical professions.
The project, which started with the creation of music videos, has evolved to offer different services and specialize in audiovisual recording for events. Currently, Núria enjoys the project, handling both client contact and the technical aspects of the services.
Glass Ceiling and the Gender Pay Gap
Glass Ceiling: The term used to represent the difficulty women face in accessing positions of responsibility and management. Specifically, the data collected by the INE’s active population survey showed that in 2017 in Catalonia, 68.6% of management and executive positions were occupied by men, while 31.4% were occupied by women.
However, there are women who, with their projects, confront and crack the so-called glass ceiling; Andrea Giannone, creator and CEO of Filmarket Hub, is one of them.
Aware that the world of cinema is a field where the gender pay gap is very present and a sector where the male gender is widely represented, she created a digital platform that offers a space to connect projects and scripts from audiovisual industry entrepreneurs and private companies worldwide.
Currently, Andrea leads the team and the project, which is growing and expanding into Europe and Latin America.
Job Stability
Part-time contracts, unemployment, the glass ceiling… Sometimes it is not easy to find stability in the workplace, and figures often show us that it is a little more difficult for women.
Nevertheless, there are cases that stand out and manage to find balance and stability in both professional and personal spheres. Georgina Vidal, after working for a major clothing brand, took the step of undertaking a new project on her own: The Old Green Corner, a sustainable interior design project.
Entrepreneurship has been the best way to reconcile personal and professional life. Despite encountering some entry barriers as a young person, she currently runs her own company single-handedly.
Work-Life Balance
The career of lawyer Carme Teixidor spans many occupations, but always following a common denominator: the balance between her professional life and personal sphere.
Fourteen years ago, she started her own project, her own law firm. However, she has always combined her dedication to the firm with teaching, first at the Girona Practical Law School and then at the University of Girona and Autoocupació.
Currently, her firm collaborates with other offices in Girona, has focused its involvement on commercial law, and has made inroads into the world of teaching, always without losing sight of work-life balance.
