Liderança feminina: a trajetória das mulheres líderes das cooperativas de crédito

Abstract

The diversity and inclusion agenda is increasingly present in society, companies and cooperatives, whose purpose is to help develop a fairer, more humane and egalitarian society. The main objective of this work is to understand the trajectories of female leaders in credit unions and how these trajectories impacted their careers. The investigation was carried out through exploratory qualitative research, through 14 (fourteen) narrative interviews with women who occupy leadership positions in 14 (fourteen) different credit unions of the Systems: Sicredi, Sicoob, Unicred, Ailos, Cresol, Uniprime, Credisis and Cecoop. These cooperatives are present in eight Brazilian states: RS, SC, PR, SP, RJ, MG, ES, RO. In addition to the narrative interviews, a Reflection Group was set up, with the participation of 6 (six) women, who are members of the Global Women Leaders Network (GWLN), a program of the Foundation of the World Cooperatives Council of credit. After the interviews and the Reflection Group meetings, the data were analyzed using the NVivo 10® software. The results of the investigation showed that the cultural context in which they are inserted, how potential factors influence women to reach a leadership position and how the cooperative environment contributed to the development of women leaders and what aspects help to compose leadership identities. The characteristics of transformational leadership are highlighted and a model is proposed to boost the development of women leaders in cooperatives. Thus, it is hoped that this work can help women to better understand the difficulties they face in their contexts and in what ways they can reach leadership positions. Likewise, the contributions highlighted in this research encompassed the academy and the cooperative environment.