Pathways to autonomy: tzotzil women's empowerment

During the last quarter, training and support processes continued for Women Artisans Social Enterprises, as well as for the artisans who make up the Collective and Transformative Business Leadership team. In this report, we share with you some of the main lessons learned from the implementation of the project.

Investing in indigenous women is a fundamental pillar to move toward gender justice. In our support processes, social investment is strategically focused on strengthening business skills, increasing technical knowledge, human development, and strengthening leadership with a collective and transformative approach. These actions directly contribute to reducing structural gaps that have historically limited the economic participation of indigenous women.

Generating their own income is one of the most significant outcomes of these training and support processes. The artisans are undergoing a progressive process of professionalization of their craft activity, which has enabled them to develop new products in line with market trends and to connect with fair trade markets that recognize and value craftsmanship. This access to markets and their own income is a key element in their empowerment, strengthening their economic autonomy and their decision-making capacity in the family, community, and organizational spheres.

Taken together, these advances reaffirm that investing in the economic empowerment of indigenous women is an effective and sustainable strategy for promoting gender equality, strengthening local economies, and generating long-term positive impacts in communities. Comprehensive support, focused on capacity building, market access, and income generation, not only strengthens women artisans' social enterprises but also contributes to the development of economic autonomy and collective leadership, which are fundamental for fair and inclusive development.

Over the last three months, we have continued with the training and support processes for women artisans.

Strengthening design capabilities

During this period, the artisans have participated collectively in design processes, taking into account the needs of their markets, the competition, and the lessons learned throughout the training program. As a result, they have developed new product proposals.

For example, the Ach J Luchabil Antsetik Women Artisans Social Enterprise has made significant progress in scaling up traditional brocades. First, they select the brocade and perform scaling exercises on a grid, where each square represents a point in the fabric. Once the brocade is correctly scaled, they proceed to weave it on the backstrap loom. This exercise has been very valuable in promoting the artisans' innovation, differentiating them from other artisan groups and demonstrating their mastery of traditional processes.

“I am very happy with what we have achieved. At first, we thought it couldn't be done, because we had always made brocade of the same size, but now I am pleased to see the collections of cushions we have made with larger brocade. We have learned that if we try hard, we can achieve whatever we set our minds to,” said one artisan.

Strengthening internal and productive organization

Linking with fair trade markets, as part of our support model, is key to enabling artisans to generate income and strengthen their family finances. Therefore, these links are constantly promoted, allowing artisans to:

• Strengthen their internal organization and production processes, ranging from collective sourcing of raw materials and equitable distribution of orders to production monitoring.

•   Manage processes within their ESMAS.

•   Apply knowledge in total quality, costing, sampling, and labeling.

These processes have strengthened the ESMAS that have participated in this project.

With this final report, we would like to express our gratitude for your accompaniment and support throughout this project. Your contribution has been fundamental in strengthening the capacities, economic autonomy, and creativity of Tzotzil women artisans. Thank you for contributing to the construction of paths toward economic autonomy for women artisans.