Territorio Negocios - Beyond March 8: Women’s Leadership and the Power to Transform From Within

By INSTITUTIONAL COMMUNICATION | EGADE BUSINESS SCHOOL

Every March 8 (8M), around the commemoration of International Women’s Day, many organizations amplify their messages about equality and women’s leadership.

However, once the date passes, the pace of change often slows, despite women representing nearly half of the workforce in Latin America and remaining underrepresented in senior leadership and on corporate boards.

This was the starting point of the episode “Beyond March 8: Women’s leadership and the power to transform from within” of the Territorio Negocios podcast, featuring Lourdes Ocampo, academic leader of the Women Leading Organizations program at EGADE Business School, and Karla Zamora, Managing Director of Jeffrey Group in Mexico.

Drawing from her experience in corporate communications, Zamora warned that the challenge is to prevent the conversation around gender equity from remaining only at the narrative level.

“We can spend a lot of time communicating everything we do on March 8, but we forget that there are 365 days in a year,” she said.

For the executive, diversity and inclusion initiatives must be embedded in organizational culture and business strategy, rather than limited to temporary campaigns.

For her part, Ocampo acknowledged that progress has been made in women’s representation in leadership positions, although at a slower pace than many would hope.

“There is definitely progress. The issue is that it is slower than one would like,” she said.

Studies by international consulting firms show increasing female representation in senior leadership, but they also estimate that, at the current pace, gender equality could take more than a century to achieve.

In this context, Ocampo highlighted the importance of strengthening female talent development at all levels of the organization and making role models visible to inspire new professional trajectories.

“Having more women in these positions means overcoming challenges throughout the entire organizational ladder,” she explained.

Zamora agreed that one of the key challenges is strengthening women’s confidence to pursue senior leadership roles.

“It often feels as if, as a woman, you need to do twice as much to prove your value,” she said, noting that learning about the experiences of other female leaders can help overcome impostor syndrome.

The episode was hosted by Alicia Galindo, national director of the Master in Finance at EGADE Business School of Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Territorio Negocios releases a new episode every week, every Tuesday, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music.