In Corporate Mexico, Women Are Still Rarely Seen in Top-Level Management Rebecca Conan - El Daily Post
go to original March 15, 2016

Ana Patricia Botín is the board president and CEO of the Spanish bank Santander, having taken over from her father who died last Sept. 10. Since Santander has a presence in Mexico, that makes her the only female CEO of a company listed on the Mexican stock exchange. (Associated Press)

Ana Patricia Botín is an anomaly in Mexico. As the CEO and board president of Banco Santander, she is the only female CEO of a company listed on the Mexican stock exchange.

Of the 145 companies listed on the Mexican stock exchange, just over half have female board members, only seven have female CFOs and just three issuers (including Banco Santander) have female board presidents, according to an analysis of key personnel and board members.

The absence of women in the higher reaches of corporate life is nothing new, but Mexican women are faring far worse than their counterparts both north and south of the border. In the United States, women hold 19.2 percent of board seats for companies listed on the S&P 500 index, while women in Colombia (Latin America’s leader in female representation at the board level) held 9 percent of board positions in 2011, according to data from the workplace inclusion group Catalyst and the professional services firm McKinsey.

Mexico has the second lowest rate of female participation in the workforce compared to other OECD countries. But once women are in the workforce, they account for a significant proportion of middle level management. So why are they not reaching the C-Suite or board president level?

“In Mexico we have a culture where men have traditionally occupied a more privileged role in society where they control the money, resources, political decisions and business decisions while women take care of the home,” Laura García, executive director of the women’s fund Semillas told El Daily Post. “Companies are a reflection of the type of culture we have.”

Women and men graduate from universities in Mexico in roughly even numbers but societal pressure to look after the house and children pushes many women out of the job market after just a few years.

Read the rest at El Daily Post

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