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Women, Capital and Leadership in Business: Stories of Entrepreneurship in Spain

Half a million euros in debt, 27 employees who could no longer be kept on, and a company that hit a dead end just three years after it was founded because of a business partner’s decision. That is part of the story of Grisel Garrido, a veteran entrepreneur in Spain’s electronic security industry, and it shows a side of entrepreneurship far removed from the familiar image of success and growth.

Garrido’s story was one of three perspectives shared at the Madrid Chamber of Commerce’s “Women and Leadership” sessions. Alicia E. Kaufmann spoke about women’s relationship with money and financial control, and Inmaculada Sánchez Ramos examined the future of engineering and the place of technology experts in management. Together, the three accounts take the debate on women entrepreneurship in Spain beyond starting a business to a wider question: how can women turn their resources, experience and knowledge into economic decision-making power?

That question takes concrete shape in an economy with millions of small firms, a large family-business sector and growing use of digital technology. Its place on the Madrid Chamber’s agenda also shows the institution’s commitment to strengthening women’s role in running and growing businesses.

Financial independence: more than having an income

Alicia E. Kaufmann looked at women’s relationship with money through economic behaviour and family experience. In this view, money is not only a means of exchange but is tied to security, independence, freedom of choice and social standing, and managers’ attitudes to risk, saving and investment shape a company’s path.

At the heart of her talk was the gap between earning an income and being financially independent. Kaufmann described an educated woman who, after her husband fell ill, realised she did not understand the family’s bank accounts or finances. Knowing one’s assets, debts and obligations is a precondition for taking part in financial decisions, at home and in business.

Business ownership and financial transparency in family firms

According to Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE), at the start of 2025 there were about 1.86 million businesses owned by individuals, 37.9% of them by women. The share reached 65.4% in “other services” and 59.1% in education, health and social services. Yet the number of business owners is only part of the picture; company size, access to capital and real control over financial decisions also matter.

The distinction is sharper in family businesses. According to the Spanish Family Business Institute (IEF), about 92.4% of Spanish companies are family-owned: more than 1.1 million firms employing about 10.2 million people and accounting for around 70% of private-sector employment and 57.2% of its gross value added. In such firms, a family member may run sales or even day-to-day management without knowing the bank commitments or shareholding structure, a gap that surfaces in a crisis or a generational handover.

Women in the labour market: from employment to management

INE’s 2025 labour force survey shows that about 76.3% of employed women had a superior but no supervisory responsibility themselves, compared with 65.7% of men. Managers of large and medium-sized companies made up 0.3% of all employed women and 1% of all employed men.

Kaufmann pointed to rigid organisational structures, long working hours and the difficulty of balancing family and work as key barriers. Official data also show that in 2025 about 452,000 workers in Spain, most of them women, worked part-time to care for dependants. Helping these people continue their careers is part of how companies manage their human capital.

Grisel Garrido: from failure to rebuilding a business

Grisel Garrido, CEO of Prevent Security Systems, was born in the Dominican Republic and, after moving to Spain, rose through an industry with few women. She eventually led Tyco International’s operations in Spain, at one point, she said, managing 586 people. After years of management experience, she returned to university and earned a degree in security and defence at the age of 59.

Her first independent venture, however, failed. Three years after it was founded, her distribution company was hit when its business partner halted its distribution programme, leaving about half a million euros in debt and forcing her to let 27 employees go. Recalling the crisis, she stressed the pain of that decision about her staff more than the size of the debt.

In an economy of more than 3.3 million businesses, 81.6% of which have at most two employees, losing a supplier or a sudden drop in demand can directly threaten payroll and contractual commitments. Garrido did not give up: she founded a new security systems company which, at the time of the session, had been operating for nearly 25 years.

The glass ceiling and the concrete ceiling

Garrido distinguished between the “glass ceiling” and the “concrete ceiling”. The glass ceiling refers to invisible barriers within organisations; the concrete ceiling, in her words, is the limit built by fear of failure, self-doubt or reluctance to take on responsibility. She described people who spent years preparing a business plan without ever launching a business.

The GEM Spain 2025–2026 report likewise notes that, although early-stage entrepreneurial activity rose from 7.2% to 7.8%, fear of failure and difficulty scaling remain challenges. Garrido also spoke about her daughter joining the family business after twelve years at an American multinational, a personal decision linked to the wider issue of succession in family firms.

Inmaculada Sánchez Ramos: engineering and women’s economic future

Inmaculada Sánchez Ramos, a telecommunications engineer, began her studies in 1979, when very few women studied engineering. She has held positions at companies such as Indra, KPMG and Telefónica, as well as in Madrid’s public sector. In her view, engineering is often portrayed as purely numerical and technical, when in fact it is bound up with everyday life through health, transport, energy, communications and urban management. In 2025, ICT degrees had the highest employment rate of the fields studied, at 81.72%.

A large part of her talk focused on artificial intelligence. According to ONTSI, about 20.5% of companies with ten or more employees used AI, rising to 57.5% among large firms. Research by the Bank of Spain found that in most companies its use was still experimental, held back by a shortage of skilled staff, implementation costs and limited access to data.

Sánchez Ramos challenged the assumption that engineers in their fifties cannot learn new tools, and stressed the value of experienced professionals’ practical knowledge in digital transformation. Referring to the work of Spain’s Royal Academy of Engineering, she also argued for technology expertise on company boards, since decisions on data infrastructure, AI and cybersecurity have long-term consequences.

Madrid: linking management training with women’s business networks

The Empresarias Líderes 360 programme, run by the Madrid Chamber of Commerce, Madrid City Council and the Madrid Association of Women Entrepreneurs (ASEME), combines management training with expert advice and networking. It focuses on businesses owned and run by women, and its networks support the sharing of experience on crisis management, commercial contracts, succession and technology upgrades.

From Madrid’s experience to Iran–Spain business cooperation

Many of the issues raised are familiar to Iranian businesses too: reliance on key suppliers or customers, managing financial obligations, preserving liquidity, generational handovers and technology renewal. These shared concerns can form the basis for professional dialogue between women entrepreneurs in the two countries.

For the Women Entrepreneurs Committee of the Iran–Spain Joint Chamber of Commerce, Madrid’s experience stands out because it links women-focused programmes with the practical issues of running a company. The Chamber’s role is to facilitate professional introductions, identify common ground and create opportunities to share experience, connections that, where capacity and mutual need exist, can lead to business-to-business cooperation.

The three stories, from money and ownership to business failure and the future of engineering, arrive at a common point: the ability to influence economic decisions. Earning an income, founding a company and building expertise are each part of the path; their importance becomes clearer when they lead to financial control, business sustainability and a say in the company’s future.

Main sources: Talks by Alicia E. Kaufmann, Grisel Garrido and Inmaculada Sánchez Ramos in the Madrid Chamber of Commerce’s Women and Leadership sessions; supplementary data from INE, IEF, the European Commission, GEM Spain, ONTSI and the Bank of Spain.

Secretariat of the Iran–Spain Joint Chamber of Commerce