Promoting female leadership is essential to boosting strong and sustainable growth in the region. To this end, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has published research that provides tools to contribute to an increase in positive results of gender policies and practices in the labor market.
The study titled “An unequal Olympiad: gender equality in Latin American and Caribbean companies” find absence of women in the business world Latin America and the Caribbean. Only 14% of firms are owned by women and 15% of management positions are held by women.
The research also reveals that the female presence in the labor marketIt is significantly predominant in areas considered “soft”, such as communications and public relations. In “hard” areas, such as foreign trade, it represents less than 35% of employees. There is also a higher proportion of women in lower-ranking positions (junior, administrative, supervisor), where women represent 36% of the total number of employees. In the higher ranks, their representation is around 25% of the total number of employees.
The report finds poor technique in the female workforce. Only 35% of them use advanced technologies. She explains that “this low proportion may be due to issues of demand, discrimination or the mistaken idea that women are less suited to handling technology.” She details that service companies are the ones with the highest percentage of women in technology with 37%, followed by commerce (35%) and manufacturing (30%).
When studying the inside the firms, the IDB finds that 15% of companies show the existence of wage gaps. In this regard, it notes that the most compromised are those exporters (18% vs 14% in non-exporting companies), the largest (23% vs 10% in medium-sized companies) and those in services (18% vs 13% in trade and 14% in manufacturing).
According to the financial institution that promotes development and trade integration in Latin America and the Caribbean, the presence of women in leadership positions, the level of training of the workforce, the use of advanced technologies and a favorable business culture are the main factors that influence gender equality in companies in the region.
The IDB concludes its analysis with the contribution of tools conducive to gender equality in existing firms in the region, such as the implementation of gender quota legislation, the transparent publication of salary information, the creation of training programs and the development of an agenda that facilitates the balance between paid and unpaid work that most women undertake. In addition, it suggests promoting positive gender policies and practices through the trade, for example, by including equity objectives in trade agreements, which are already on the agenda of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the European Union.
To give importance to this topic, the joint work is essential. “Latin American companies have the power to improve gender equity in the region, and the public sector is essential for generating these incentives,” the IDB concludes. (Study "An unequal Olympiad: gender equality in Latin American and Caribbean companies")
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