Weddle will research Peruvian women

By Jessica Tyree

The convergence of three passions — women’s issues, the Spanish language and economics — will take U.Va. graduate Brooke Weddle to Peru on a Fulbright scholarship.

The economics and Spanish major hopes to continue the research she began last summer on women in Peru’s informal economy by returning to the country to live and study among these business pioneers.

Peruvian women, largely unable to break into the formal sector, are increasingly utilizing small loans to penetrate the informal market. Through close documentation of the women’s professional lives and the establishment of community support groups, Weddle said she hopes to draw “close attention to the entrepreneurial capabilities of women in Peru and discover new ways in which microcredit can strengthen and reinforce them.”

“I envision my project as supplying the impetus for the growth of many female microentrepreneurs’ businesses,” she said. At U.Va., this desire to see women succeed professionally led Weddle to volunteer with a Young Women’s Leadership Program at the Women’s Center.

Because of the Fulbright, Weddle will defer for one year her acceptance to Stanford’s Ph.D. program in cultures, literatures and languages. Her future plans include humanitarian efforts in the defense of women and a possible career in the U.S. Foreign Service.