dollars in buying power. Imagine the impact on our economy if the spending and consumer power of Latina workers was doubled. We could buy more homes, make more purchases, pay more income taxes, and help bolster the overall economic health of this country.Latinas are building businesses and creating jobs. In fact, Latinas are one of the fastest growing groups of entrepreneurs in the country.
Latina entrepreneurs face the challenge of receiving less investment funds than other entrepreneurs — even though we are opening more businesses than other community members. According to the Stanford Latino report, banks lend less money to Latino entrepreneurs, and Latinas face "funding ceilings" because of their gender and ethnic background.
Latinas prove time and again that even when we confront barriers, inferior investment, systemic and institutional racism, and other challenges, we continue to rise, to build, and to thrive. A 2017Imagine what more we could do, how much more we could contribute, how many more jobs we could create, and how much brighter our future would be if employers, investors, lawmakers, and other community leaders fully understood that Latinas are our present and the future of this nation.