María Ariza, BIVA CEO, offered a keynote address in the Women Empowered Forum, organized by Full-Time MBA in Innovation & Entrepreneurship students.

By JOSÉ ÁNGEL DE LA PAZ | EGADE BUSINESS SCHOOL

The low level of representation by women in the business sector and the economic benefits of increasing female participation were addressed by María Ariza, CEO of Mexico’s Institutional Stock Exchange (BIVA), within the Women Empowered Forum.

In her keynote speech, the executive explained that women are underrepresented at every level of the corporate hierarchy, despite comprising 51% of the population and 43% of Mexico’s workforce.

She pointed out that, at the entry-level, there are almost twice as many men as women, while women’s presence falls to 25% at managerial and executive levels, and the percentage of female talent in C-Level positions is just 10%.

Therefore, she explained that it is 88 times more likely that a man will make it to a C-Level position, and 200,000 junior female employees need to be recruited for one woman to reach the executive committee.

In addition, Ariza commented that one in three companies lack programs or procedures to increase women’s participation, and that the pay gap is 34% in Mexico for performing the same work.

“If were to close the pay gap, Mexico’s PIB would grow 70%,” she affirmed, based on data from the Women Matter MX study.

The former Amexcap CEO also addressed women’s participation in Mexico’s Private Capital Industry.

She specified that 84% of entrepreneurial capital funds do not have a single woman on their investment team, and just 4% of partners are women.

This, she explained, is a problem for industry, since it has been proved that funds with gender-diverse working teams and leadership positions take better investment decisions.

“And speaking of female entrepreneurs, just 11% of companies backed by entrepreneurial capital were founded by women. There is an enormous gap in this sense,” said the Board Member of the Tecnológico de Monterrey School of Business.

Ariza highlighted the work of Mujeres Invirtiendo, a community of over 100 women from the Private Capital Industry that seeks to promote women’s participation in investment teams.

“We know that if more women participate in investment decisions, there will be more capital supporting women entrepreneurs, which, in turn, would generate greater profitability for companies and investors,” she said.

The Women Empowered Forum was organized by EGADE Business School Full-Time MBA in Innovation & Entrepreneurship students, and held, in the virtual format, on March 24 and 25.

The forum brought together women corporate and entrepreneurship leaders who shared their stories and experiences with the aim of inspiring, generating change, and empowering women in business and organizations.

Ana Karen Ramírez, founder and CEO of Epic Queen, also contributed as a keynote speaker, addressing the jobs of the future and the gender gap in STEM.

The forum also included a “HeForShe” workshop and two discussion panels: “Entrepreneurial Women”, with Camila Lecaros, Managing Director at MassChallenge in Mexico; Deborah Dana, founder and CEO of Canasta Rosa; Gabriela León, cofounder and CEO of Gresmex; and Vanessa Yáñez, EGADE MBA graduate; and “Women in the World of Corporate Business”, with Karla Martínez de Salas, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Mexico and Latin America; Lucía Olvera, Marketing Director for Mexico and Central America at Campari Group; Karina Awad, Corporate Director - Human Resources, at Coca-Cola FEMSA; and Michelle Martin, Full-Time MBA in Innovation & Entrepreneurship student.

With information from Fabricio Moreno Reyes.