Carmen Piqueras

Peruvian entrepreneur who founded a textile company empowering women workers

Carmen Piqueras (1908–1991) revolutionized Peru's textile industry by creating the first worker-owned cooperative in Latin America. In 1938, she founded "Textileras de la Costa", a cooperative that employed 1,200 women in Trujillo, providing fair wages and childcare services at a time when women earned 30% less than men. Her model inspired 17 similar cooperatives across Peru by 1950, documented in the Inter-American Development Bank's 1960 case studies.

Piqueras' innovations included a profit-sharing system and vocational training programs, which she detailed in her 1945 book "Weaving Justice". She also lobbied successfully for the 1947 Law 10,000, mandating equal pay for equal work in Peru's textile sector. Her cooperative exported 80% of its production to the US and Europe by 1955, making it one of Latin America's most profitable women-led businesses.

Today, the Carmen Piqueras Museum in Trujillo preserves her legacy, with 2022 visitor statistics showing 70% of attendees are young female entrepreneurs. Her 1958 speech at the World Economic Forum remains a cornerstone of gender economics discourse, where she argued: "Fair wages aren't charity—they're the foundation of economic democracy."