The role of women in rural enterprises and their contributions to sustainable territorial development. Popular market of the city of Latacunga, province of Cotopaxi and the ShunGo Foundation

Territorial development is a broad and multidimensional approach that can be applied in the empirical field to transform the economic, social and environmental dynamics of the territory conceived as a social construction, whose main objective is to improve the well-being of rural societies. It is based on structural changes in the productive and institutional dynamics, highlighting the role of rural women in the performance of entrepreneurial activities that contribute to poverty reduction, employment and income generation, among other fundamental aspects to promote the improvement of the quality of life of the population and the competitiveness of rural territories. The objective of this study was to analyze the role of rural women in the promotion of enterprises that contribute to sustainable territorial development. For this purpose, an empiricist-inductivist epistemological approach was used, whose postulates underpinned the use of the quantitative method. The information was collected from 73 rural women entrepreneurs of the popular market (68 people) and 5 representatives of the ShunGo Foundation of the city of Latacunga, province of Cotopaxi, through the application of a questionnaire submitted to expert validation. Among the main findings of the research, the role of the entrepreneurial woman for the sustainable development of the locality from the economic, social and environmental approach through business activities mainly oriented to the agricultural and livestock sector stands out