Coworking designed especially for women proves to be a trend
Initiatives that arise from the needs of different types of women in the labor market have given rise to new coworking concepts
Coworking is a trend that has come to stay, no one has any doubt about that. Experts in different parts of the world have affirmed that coworking spaces constitute a true revolution in the way in which people approach their work, especially the youngest. Likewise, coworking has proven to be a useful and profitable tool for new business models, such as start-ups, but, above all, the concept has proven to be flexible enough to spread throughout the world.
Lidija Grozdanic, in her article “JLL Study: Coworking is More than Hype”, where she analyzes the study published by the German firm JLL on the situation of world coworking, taking as a reference Germany, ensures that coworking spaces are on the rise due to that people want increasingly flexible working conditions and lifestyles.
In this article Grozdanic identifies, also, the three most common types of coworking, in which all the recent proliferation of spaces of this type can be divided : coworking in the most immediate sense, where people share spaces closely in a framework that is not within a conventional office; hybrid spaces, which refer to a combination between private offices and open spaces; and business centers, where spaces conditioned for it are rented as private offices for a given period of time, but where other services are also offered.
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This phenomenon is already a reality and, nevertheless, its flexibility is so captivating that little by little there have been cases that attract attention, where coworking specially designed for women stands out. It is necessary to specify, at first, that these spaces for women are based on the vision of creators who have seen in the market a need to provide spaces that fulfill their needs of a large number of women and projects created by women, which hadn't had space to fully develop.
This is how “One Roof Women” was born in 2015, for example, by Sheree Rubinstein and Gianna Wurzl, where its main objective is to provide a platform for women leaders in business and business leaders. This coworking has become one of the most important in the Australian landscape, especially in Melbourne, where it is located.
However, three coworking that attracts the most attention in Latin America rules in the region. The first of them is the Mexican “Co-madre” , founded by Paola Tabachnik in 2017. From her need to combine her professional life with her personal life, Tabachnik devised a coworking place where entrepreneurial mothers had a place and were the focus of attention. In this way, “Co-mother” has all the workspaces and offices available for different projects that wish to be part of this coworking, while having all the attention that the children of the mothers involved may require.
From a very similar need, Lissette Arellano set out for “Co-madres”, the first Ecuadorian coworking designed especially for women and, like its Mexican analog, with special attention for mothers and their children. A particular element of this last space is the store that it has, where the products of the different companies involved in coworking can be displayed to the public.
Finally, there is "Urban Woman" from Chile, with a perspective closer to the Australian "Roof", designed especially for women entrepreneurs and leaders in their fields.
What makes these coworking proposals specially designed for women interesting is not the concept in itself that it is only women who work, but the flexibility that the concept of coworking provides for different women, with very different needs in their lives, they can adapt to the work they want and can combine all aspects of their lives as they wish, regardless of the demands of their work.
That is why concepts that start from a specific need such as maternity, such as “Co-madre” and “Co-madres”, have a promising projection just like “Urban Women” because they adapt to different lifestyles to those who answer is coworking. Proof of this is that Forbes Mexico recognized the “Co-madre” projection in 2019 and assured that this will be its year. And, without a doubt, it is the concept that new economies need.
