Mexico, the cradle of female entrepreneurship: why mothers prefer to start their own businesses

We’re scandalized when we learn about informal employment rates in Mexico, but we look the other way when it comes to finding the root cause. Another jaw-dropping fact is that the vast majority of people swelling the ranks of informality in Mexico are women. And not just women in general: they’re mothers. Upon having babies, they discovered that the formal labor system is an impenetrable, hostile fortress that offers rigidity instead of flexibility.

For this reason, Mexico has established itself as the cradle of women entrepreneurs: a territory where the new business ecosystem is proudly led by women, specifically by mothers. Let no one pin medals on themselves in Congress: female entrepreneurship in this country didn’t flourish thanks to an idea dreamed up in a government office, nor was it caused by a subsidy. It was born in legitimate self-defense against a State that forces you to choose between your career and your children.

The “Savior State” Magic Trick and Its Hidden Cost

Every time a legislator proposes, with tears in their eyes, to extend maternity leave to absurd lengths, the progressive applause is immediate. The government instantly dons its superhero suit and cape to sponsor the initiative. We’re sold the illusion that the benefit is free because, formally, Social Security (IMSS) covers the economic subsidy. However, the geniuses of bureaucratic economics stay silent about where the funds actually come from: the suffocating increase in employer-employee contributions and tax collection. The State doesn’t give anything away for free; first it reaches into your pocket, then hands you back a fraction of your own money while demanding gratitude.

Behind this false interventionist sponsorship, an invisible sign hangs over the foreheads of women of reproductive age: “Don’t hire me; I represent a high-cost operational risk.” Even if the government pays the salary during the absence, small and medium-sized businesses—the true engine of the country—absorb the logistical blow. A microenterprise cannot freeze a position for months without paying the cost of recruiting, training, and covering the vacant role with a temporary replacement. By indirectly raising the cost of formal payroll and making work flows more rigid, the State turns female employment into a luxury item. The regulations claim to protect you; in reality, they destroy your hiring opportunities.

The “Nenis” and Self-Employed Mothers: The True Heroines of Capitalism

Faced with an outdated Federal Labor Law that demands fixed 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. office hours, Mexican mothers decided not to ask permission. They applied the free market in its purest, most resilient form.

The phenomenon of women who sell on Instagram, coordinate digital trade networks, organize local bazaars, or offer independent professional services from their computer while caring for their family is not a trend; it represents a genuine economic revolution. They become entrepreneurs because the free market offers them what state corporatism denies them by law: absolute control over their time.

While the government spends millions of pesos from public funds on women’s secretariats and institutes to give useless “empowerment” workshops and hollow speeches full of inclusive language, self-employed mothers are driving the real economy with a cellphone, an internet connection, and pure discipline. They’re not looking for gender talks: they demand clients, and that no one take their money.

Freedom Is Spelled with “M” for Market

True women’s emancipation doesn’t come from a gender quota imposed on a Board of Directors, nor from a new regulation from the Labor Secretariat: it arises from the capacity to generate wealth on one’s own terms.

If the government had even the slightest intention of helping working mothers, it would stop inventing regulations that destroy formal female employment. What we need is to make hourly hiring more flexible and allow free scheduling agreements between employees and employers, along with reducing taxes on new businesses.

Mexico’s mothers are not rescued by the State. They save themselves—trading, creating, and competing in freedom. Enough with “Girlboss” simulation laws; better to just #LetUsWork⚙️.

Originally published in Spanish by El Insubordinado.