Guadalupe and other women in the indigenous village of Teotitlán de Valle, high up in the mountains of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, are empowering their daughters to live different lives from their own.

By day, these women juggle the labour-intensive and time-consuming task of weaving tapetes (traditional wool rugs). They work long hours and are largely responsible for domestic chores in their homes after the work is done. Weaving is a proud part of their heritage, and while there are successful, world-famous, weavers from the area, many women have struggled to put food on the table, so the long hours are necessary to make and sell more rugs.

The women’s prospects were improved with the foundation of En Vía in 2008 (an abbreviation, which in English stands for businesswomen and travelers, exchanging culture and learning), a local non-profit organisation that was set up to help women out of poverty. It offers small interest-free loans (in addition to business classes, and other types of learning/participatory workshops) funded by tourists like me on day trips to the village – an important factor when the average interest rate on microloans in Mexico is 70%.

This programme enables women to buy the expensive yarn and dyes necessary for making rugs while other women use the loans to develop their businesses, buying material in bulk and so securing better prices. They are also able to build up inventory, overcoming the need to sell to large resellers who have a history of capturing the profits. Tourists can then purchase rugs and other wares produced by the women knowing that the profits go to them.

Kim Groves of En Vía says: “The women we work with have the strength, motivation and skills to make their businesses grow and develop. What they may lack is access to capital to give those businesses a chance.”

“We see improvements made in terms of the women’s businesses; they make investments with their microloans that make small or big differences to livelihoods. We see positive changes to living and working conditions, as profits are invested in both home and businesses infrastructure,” says Groves.

Studies by the Grameen Foundation and the United Nations Population Fund show that women are more likely to invest the loans in ways that directly benefit their families and communities by sending their children to school, improving their families’ living conditions and nutrition, and expanding their businesses.

En Vía target women for this reason but they also acknowledge the important role that men play. Men are invited to regular meetings with the women to encourage transparency and understanding of the loans. Many husbands and fathers support this endeavour and work alongside the women to maximise the potential of their businesses (indeed, up until the 1980s, weaving was traditionally a male enterprise).

Guadalupe’s husband is one such man. During a presentation of rugs they had made, they looked happy to be working together as a team and collaborating on work that would benefit them and their family.

The Grameen Foundation has also shown that women across the world use the profits from their businesses to send their children to school.

In Teotitlán de Valle, girls and boys are sent to school. When 66% of women in the En Vía programme have not received an education beyond primary school, they understand the importance of giving their children, and especially their daughters, an education.

One girl, Margarita, aged 10, says her favourite subject is maths while Gabreila, another girl in the village, says she would like to be an accountant when she grows up. Many women are happy to use the money from their businesses to send their children to secondary school. Others have higher aspirations.

Lucila, a mother of two, spoke of how her daughters want to learn to weave (most begin learning at the age of 12). She would like them to preserve the tradition of their culture, as well as pursue a university education – a sentiment expressed by Guadalupe and other women who want their children to have the educational opportunities they lacked.

Many of these children will be the first in their families to enter higher education and they acknowledge the importance of the women’s businesses in enabling and empowering them in the future to have opportunities and choices that their mothers have not had. The women, as a result, have become inspiring role models within their families and the community.

The World Bank holds the view that countries that invest in promoting the social and economic status of women tend to have lower poverty rates. Putting resources into poor women’s hands and educating girls, like the women and girls in this Mexican village, are two ways of achieving this.

The changes occurring in Teotitlán de Valle are promising, but while empowering women through microfinancing is important to help end poverty, it is not a panacea, according to Katya Rodríguez Gómez, an academic at the Universidad de Guanajuato, and author of a book on poverty in Mexico.

“Although education rates among girls are improving, women have lower employment rates than men and lower salaries. Therefore the problem is more complex than just education. The main problem is the structure of the labour market and the lack of a comprehensive social policy,” says Gómez.

She adds, “poverty is complex and requires integrated strategies in economic development, education, and social policy to overcome it”.

According to the International Monetary Fund (2012 report), Mexico has the 14^th largest economy in the world, yet poverty rates stand at about 46% – 52 million people as of 2010 (National Council on Evaluation of Social Development Policy).  So while micro changes in Teotitlán de Valle are promising, macro changes at the federal level are needed in order to realise a fundamental change to overall poverty rates.

As the next generation of female role models, the girls of Teotitlán de Valle have Guadalupe and other women in their village to thank for weaving new opportunities and empowering them to pursue different pathways in life. But, the power of these women to touch others does not stop there.

While various international, national, and local agencies seek to empower women in developing countries, perhaps the potential of these women to empower others who are supposedly empowered already is overlooked  – I say this as one such woman.