Víctor Esquivel, general managing partner of KPMG in Mexico, believes that men should take advantage of this position that culturally have had, so that, from leadership positions, they take effective actions in search of equal conditions.
“Closing the gender gap is achieved with leadership, with a change in culture, which has to come from the highest part of the organizations, not only with goals, but also with actions”, he points out during his participation.
Although women join organizations in senior management and leadership positions, they also face some challenges such as formalization, especially since most of them also dedicate their time to unpaid work, such as housekeeping.
“The vast majority of companies that create employment are family businesses, and if you want to change a company you have to change the family, and that is not done in one day. You have to change the aspirations of the girls, the education of their fathers and mothers and changing the opportunities”, said Gómez.
The current salary gap exposes that, for every 100 pesos that a person of the male gender receives for a certain activity, a woman receives 14 pesos less for doing exactly the same thing.
Altagracia Gómez added that, although it is useful to have rules within organizations, in order for people to accept them voluntarily, the advisability of integrating more women into management positions must be clear.
“Women pay loans better, it has been proven that out of five entrepreneurs in Mexico, three are women, and that they are much more successful in the conception of their SMEs. It is proven that teams with more diversity are more profitable and innovative and are more focused on the long-term sustainability of companies”, she added.
In the case of General Motorsthe automaker signed in 2016 a package deal marking the elimination of wage gaps between genders, in such a way that, in the manufacturing complexes that exist in the country there is no room for differences in terms of salaries.
“Creating a narrative (of gender equality) is important, but the most important thing is do it with facts”, says Francisco Garza, president and general director of the automaker in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
Deloitte’s Women at the Wheel 2020 study notes that only 24% of people who work in the manufacture of motor vehicles and auto parts are women, a figure that drops to 18% when observing the participation they occupy in terms of marketing tasks.
Odracir Barqueira, incoming general director of the Mexican Association of the Automotive Industry, stands out during his speech at the Expansion Women Summit 2023that the lack of women in this industry corresponds to an underlying sociocultural problemwhich requires urgent action on the matter.
The steps for gender equality are being taken, but it is still necessary that they give themselves with more force. Larissa Navarro, director of Human Resources Latin America North Mastercard, points out that to achieve a real change, it is necessary that the subject is recurrently on the table and that must be reflected even more from the talent recruitment areas of the companies.
“We must be able to generate those conversations in all areas. That the interviewers have a much broader vision, that they have that interest in developing female talent within the organizations, have salary equity, remuneration policies, that they are investing in development programs for women ”, he adds in Expansión Summit Women 2023.
Citibanamex is also taking action on the matter. Adib Estefan, the bank’s corporate director of Human Resources, points out that when a position opens, before selecting who will keep it, it is a requirement that there is a minimum of one woman’s resume for every two men at the table.