Author(s)

Maria Elisa de Almeida Mariz, Lucia Maria Machado Bógus

Department of Management, Universidade Nove de Julho, São Paulo, Brazil.
Department of Sociology, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.

This paper presents the trajectory of Portuguese female immigrants who came to the city of Sao Paulo in the last two decades of 20th century and records their surviving strategies, initially looking for work and subsequently as entrepreneurs in their own business: restaurants, travel agency, fado singer, and others. Its primary aim is to identify, from their narratives, the entrepreneurship level of these women and the capital stock equity of their ownership, use, and from which they could be able to develop over four decades living in this huge metropolis. In this context, it is also sought the way social networks supporting their arrival were accessed during their period adapting to the city and on performing their business ventures. The analytical and interpretative path from the face to face interviews with these Portuguese immigrants allows us to conclude that social capital is an extremely relevant resource to entrepreneurship.

Portuguese Immigrants; Entrepreneurship; Social Capital

de Almeida Mariz, M. and Bógus, L. (2014) Portuguese Women: Entrepreneurs in Sao Paulo City. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2, 308-316. doi: 10.4236/jss.2014.24034.