O desenvolvimento do empreendedorismo feminino no setor de beleza no Brasil: desafios e oportunidades para as mulheres

Abstract

This work explores the journey of female entrepreneurship in Brazil’s beauty sector, showing how women historically excluded from decision-making spaces and the formal labor market found in entrepreneurship a path toward autonomy, purpose, and balance between personal and professional life. The study highlights that, despite social advances, gender inequality still creates significant barriers, leading many women to start businesses out of necessity while facing domestic overload, prejudice, and limited mobility in traditional employment. In the beauty sector, especially in São Paulo, this movement becomes even stronger, as women find identification, creative expression, and real opportunities for growth. The research adopts a qualitative approach based on in-depth interviews with three women entrepreneurs, revealing real stories marked by challenges, choices, and continuous reinvention. Their trajectories show that they move between structured planning and improvisation, blending intuition, constant learning, and practical strategies. While some began their businesses with formal plans and clear goals, others started with the resources they had and learned through experience. Despite their differences, all faced hurdles such as lack of capital, self-criticism, emotional strain, work overload, and gender-related obstacles. Even so, they sustained their businesses through resilience, passion, purpose, and the emotional support of family and clients. The study concludes that female entrepreneurship in the beauty sector goes far beyond opening a business: it is a path of personal transformation, emotional strengthening, and autonomy. The entrepreneurs interviewed show that success emerges from the combination of courage, flexibility, and the lessons accumulated throughout their journey. The work reinforces the importance of public policies, training initiatives, and support networks so that more women can become entrepreneurs with security, planning, and fairness, consolidating their businesses as choices driven by purpose and fulfillment not merely survival