Milagros Cabral, from Cádiz, wins the territorial phase of the “Award for Autonomous Professional Women” in Western Andalusia and Extremadura

Milagros Cabral, founder of Mariquita Trasquilá, a company dedicated to fashion for guests, has been selected for her professional career as the winner of the second edition of the CaixaBank Autonomous Professional Woman Award by the Territorial Directorate of Western Andalusia and Extremadura. María Jesús Catalá, regional director of CaixaBank in Western Andalusia and Extremadura, presented the award to the winner at the Trebujena store where Milagros Cabral began her dream.

With these awards, CaixaBank recognizes the trajectory of self-employed women workers in Spain and supports the work and contribution to society of this group, which is a key player in the economy.

Mariquita Trasquilá is a benchmark in fashion for guests at the best price and quality. From Trebujena, where the firm maintains its headquarters, its founder, Milagros Cabral, has worked from the beginning for a dream that has turned into a business project that sells to the whole of Spain from the internet and currently employs more than 30 people.

Milagros Cabral has been selected from more than 70 applications that have been presented in Western Andalusia and Extremadura. For their choice, the jury (composed of CaixaBank executives) has assessed the strength of their products, as well as the degree of innovation of their professional project, the impact on job creation or issues related to sustainability and social impact, Inter alia.

In the whole of the Spanish territory, 1,023 self-employed professionals have participated, which represents an increase of 48% compared to the first edition.

Milagros Cabral will compete, together with the other 13 winners in the territorial phase (one for each CaixaBank Territorial Directorate), for the national award. The winner of the national prize will obtain a financial endowment of 6,000 euros to allocate to business and personal training actions. In addition, she will receive a diploma and will benefit from a dissemination campaign through the communication channels of the Association of Self-Employed Workers.

Professional excellence of self-employed women

With these awards, CaixaBank intends to recognize the business excellence of self-employed professionals, both in terms of the success of their current business activity and the general trajectory of their career.

As can be deduced from the 'Autonomous Woman Report 2020' prepared by the Association of Self-Employed Workers (ATA), in Spain there are 1.17 million self-employed women, which represents 35.8% of the total group. By sectors, commerce is chosen mostly by self-employed women (25.5%).

In the last decade, self-employed women have grown by 11.5% compared to the 2.4% increase for men.

CaixaBank, committed to diversity and equal opportunities

CaixaBank is aware of the importance of self-employed professionals in the weight of the economy and launches this award for the second year as a show of support and recognition for this key group.

Among CaixaBank's most outstanding initiatives for its support of diversity and equal opportunities, it is worth mentioning the Wengage diversity program, a transversal project developed by people from all areas of CaixaBank to promote and visualize gender, functional and generational Likewise, CaixaBank promotes different awards and recognitions for business leadership (CaixaBank Women in Business Awards) or for academic excellence (WONNOW Awards); or lines of action linked to sport (sponsorship of the women's basketball team).

On the other hand, CaixaBank is also the benchmark financial institution in financial services for the self-employed, where it has a market share of 44.8%, with more than 1.49 million customers. Of this number, 37% are women.