Expat adventures: the future's female in Spain "CostaWomen.com helps women navigate their way around Spain - whether it's setting up a business, or retiring, moving here with a family, or travelling alone, creating a forever home, or just as a trial," said Mrs Meehan. Our members can help with advice and real life experiences - meanwhile, the website promotes as many Spain-wide seminars, courses and events which could help with your business setup and ongoing investment in your training. Another, Ann Larson, is using her background in pharmacy and interest in natural products to successfully run Lujos.co.uk. This family business makes their own olive oil from trees on their farm, which adjoins the Sierra de las Nieves. They use the oil, plus wild rosemary, lavender and other natural products to produce their own skincare line. Putting Vejer on the foodie map of Europe is the dream of Annie Manson - she runs Annie B's Kitchen (www.anniebspain.com) and believes Sherry is the most underrated and undervalued wine in the market. She has a Sherry Educator's Certificate for the Denominación de Origen of Jerez - so you can imagine her delight that Jerez has been named 2014 European capital of wine! All three businesses are web and social-media savvy. The internet is certainly helping empower women of all ages to make the most of their expat experience. "I personally believe social media is of more importance to expats as it provides a great platform for research into the country you want to live before you even arrive," said Mrs Meehan. While the typical Brit back home may be shy and reserved when it comes to networking, moving abroad to work full-time, part-time or start a business can be the perfect way to build confidence. CostaWomen.com by its very nature is all-inclusive, being mostly made up of expats but open to English speaking females of any nationality. "Generally I have found women very keen to share their experiences and knowledge of living life in Spain," said Mrs Meehan. You just have to ask. Currently, 57 nationalities are represented on CostaWomen.com. What's more, they have links with 1230, a UK-based female networking group, for Spanish businesses looking to expand into the UK, and vice versa. "The world is definitely a more female friendly place than when I started working in the 1970s," said Mrs Meehan. During that 40-year period, gender relationships have been evolving; more so than at any time in history. As Robert Jensen of Truthout recently said '...any system that depends on one group claiming dominance over another undermines our ability to shape a decent future'. Never before has there been so much optimism for the female future.