Disciplineand fearless determination

SHE learnt early that to get ahead in business in Spain she had to be fearlessly determined, a quality she has in spades thanks to her time in the Royal Air Force.

It was during her time in the British RAF that she learnt not to accept excuses or lies, as well as gaining an iron discipline.

“Being in the RAF was one of the happiest times in my life and where I had discipline instilled in me,” she tells the Olive Press “As a result I don’t stand for any nonsense, but that also means people know where they stand with me, which is very important in business.” It was still anything but easy for her to set up

They are the key things a

ican company, Liberty Insurance, designing special packages for the expat market and has built up a reputation as a hugely successful expat businesswoman.

own property, or get divorced. Worse, they could even go to prison for adultery, although their straying husbands weren’t punished, in contrast.

One remarkable pamphlet from the 1950s on how to be ‘a good wife’ insisted you needed to keep the house spotless, the children clean, and dinner on the table. Since Franco died in 1975, feminists have made rapid progress and as Spain developed as a democracy, women’s rights started to match those of other European countries.

To

on in business in Spain, explains expat Jennifer Cunningham

her insurance business on the costas three decades ago, when women were not taken seriously in business.

“I was a widow, surviving on a meagre widow’s pension and so the only way I could start up was to re-mortgage my home, borrow money and make it work,” she recalls, from her home in Javea, on the Costa Blanca.

“I had problems finding a bank who would support me and I remember the first time I presented my business plan to get a loan, the bank manager wouldn’t address me directly but kept looking towards the male friend I had brought with me.

“At the beginning they didn’t want to take me on and they felt sure that I would fail,” she reveals. “My style of selling was completely new to them, the culture here in Spain was so different.”

“As an entrepreneur I had to take risks and convince those who had the financial backing of huge institutions behind them to take a risk on me, but I proved myself and in the end, those very same people looked to me to lead strategy and even asked me to teach them how to do it.”

Today Jennifer Cunningham Insurance has seven offices in Spain (including one in the Canaries) and thousands of expat customers. While an incredible success story - not just for a woman, but also as an expat - she however, is most proud of the fact that she leads a team of over 20 women across her offices.

She leads a team of over 20 women across her seven offices

“I had to point out that it was me who was borrowing the money, that I was the business owner and when they didn’t take me seriously, I walked out and went somewhere else.”

She eventually found a sympathetic bank manager, a man who has supported her ever since her first venture, and who she has stayed with as he moved across different banks.

She then began working with a giant Amer-

“It isn’t a policy to only employ women, it just turns out that they are the ones that have thrived,” she explains.

“Applications are open to everyone and we have employed men and I try to keep a balance in the teams, but it’s the women that seem to be most successful in this business and the ones that stay on for years and years, while the men just don’t seem to keep up.”

For more info visit www.jennifercunningham. net or www.paulcunninghamnurses.com

The ‘husband’s permission rule’ was abolished in 1975, the adultery law went in 1978, and divorce was legalised in 1981.

Finally in 1987, it was ruled that a rape victim didn’t have to prove they had fought the man back, while in 2004, the government introduced the ‘Integrated Law’, which funded the Government Delegation of Violence Against Women and finally a nationwide pact in 2017.

Pioneer

“Spain is a pioneer in terms of laws that ensure equality, compared to other countries worldwide,” insists Carmen Quintanilla of women’s rural association AFAMMER.

“Until the elaboration of the 2017 State Pact, never before had a government been so committed to the eradication of gender violence.”

By 2019, Congress had the most female members in its history (and one of the highest in the world and top in Europe) with 166 female deputies, taking 47.4% of seats.

However, a backslide occurred in 2020 when the far-right Voxnow Spain’s third largest political party - claimed that the gender violence law favours women and should be replaced with a family violence law. Vox also has made

Sandra Garcia-Sanjuan

Founder & Director, Starlite Group

CELEBRITY broker and friend to the stars, Garcia-Sanjuan (Tenerife, 1972) organises one of Europe’s best – and longest–annual festivals, a task which involves charm and logistics. Offering two solid months of world-class nightly concerts, previous performers at Marbella’s Starlite Festival have included Tony Bennett, The Beach Boys, and Ricky Martin (Rod Stewart, Norah Jones and the Gypsy Kings are on the bill this summer). Starlite has spawned fashion, food and film divisions, and Garcia–Sanjuan also set up Quiero Trabajo which helps women at risk of social exclusion prepare for interviews and careers.

Juana

Roig, CEO, Mercadona Tech

NO doubt, being the daughter of the Spanish billionaire businessman Juan Roig Alfonso, president of Mercadona, didn’t hurt when she went through the interview process. But credit where credit’s due, after turning her attention to the supermarket chain’s under-performing e-commerce division, online billing increased 190% in a year. Apparently she told her father the website was ‘shit’. Five years on, it generates €540 million in sales. Born in 1984, the youngest of four daughters, she is touted as a potential successor.