Two out of three people who set up as entrepreneurs in Spain are women

​On International Women's Day, the President of the Government visited the Google Campus in Madrid, where he held a talk with entrepreneurs who presented him with their respective technological projects.

Mariano Rajoy indicated that the percentage of women working in 1977, at the start of the democratic period, was 18%, while now the female employment rate is over 40%, which is "a very substantial improvement". He also pointed out that following the "monumental" economic crisis suffered by the country between 2008 and 2014, the recovery in female employment has outpaced male employment.

The President of the Government underlined that "two out of three people who set up as entrepreneurs in Spain today are women", and that there are more women graduates than men. He also pointed to the number of women on boards of directors of IBEX companies, which has increased by 30% to 91. In Europe, the number of women board members stands at 21.2%, while in Spain "we are now moving towards 20%," he said.

Mariano Rajoy referred to some of the measures implemented in this term in office to support entrepreneurs and the self-employed. He indicated that four years ago, when he entered government, "there was no credit available for anyone, not even for the public authorities". We were on the verge of a bailout and had to pay "astronomical prices for money". This, he said, "is improving now", and Spanish SMEs are financing their operations "at lower rates than German ones".

The President of the Government made a firm commitment to the creation of a spirit of entrepreneurship and equal opportunities, and has linked entrepreneurship to levels of well-being and wealth. In his opinion, "countries where things are going better have more small and medium-sized enterprises". This is also true within Spain: the areas with a stronger tradition of entrepreneurship have "a higher GDP", more employment and attract more young people. The spirit of entrepreneurship, in his opinion, "can be learned at school."

"A country will have better services, will be able to offer more opportunities and will have a higher quality of life if there are entrepreneurs, people who take risks and put themselves on the line and thus generate jobs, because jobs mean wealth for those who have them and wealth for society as a whole", he argued.

In fact, creating jobs, said Mr Rajoy, has been the "main goal" of his government, because having a job allows people to lead a decent life and "has an effect on everything that all advanced societies wish for", from public pensions, health and education to infrastructures and social services.

With respect to the pensions system, the President of the Government pointed out that in Spain there are 9,250,000 pensioners and that the average pension for those who are retired is now 1,400 euros per month. "Paying all this and above all paying it in the coming years means that a lot of people will have to be working, contributing to the Social Security system and paying taxes", he concluded.