Women are Undervalued in the International Workforce. Men Need to Help.
By Doreen Hemlock
Studies show that organizations with diverse leadership produce better financial results, more innovation, and greater engagement, motivating staff and reducing employee turnover. So, what can companies do to champion women and reduce the obstacles that limit their advancement?
That was the focus of the 8th annual Women’s Hemispheric Network Conference held this past April at the Miami offices of law firm Greenberg Traurig and featuring, among others, Carolina Mejia, the first female mayor of Santo Domingo, the 524-year-old city that is the capital of the Dominican Republic. (See report, pg. 61)
Panelists stressed the need for women to help one another, not only as mentors but more importantly as sponsors, speaking out to decision-makers when their mentees are not present. “Sorority. Be there for other women,” advised Mejia, who has named women to head up 60 percent of departments in her city government, from planning to solid waste management. “And give men the opportunity to support you. Encourage them,” she added, naming her father and husband as some of her biggest allies. Her father, Hipolito Mejia, was the president of the Dominican Republic from 2000 to 2004.
With women in business also handling most responsibilities at home, panelists recognized work/life balance as a major challenge. They suggested women be as organized as possible, build networks to help with family, and ultimately accept that it’s messy. “You’re on a conference call and preparing lunch. You have to get comfortable with that,” said Cuba-born Ileana Musa, managing director and head of international banking and lending for financial services giant Morgan Stanley in Miami.
Men have a crucial role to play too, educating other men about unconscious bias, microaggressions, and other forms of discrimination against women, said Andrew Martin, president of Latin American for New York-based pharmaceutical maker Pfizer. He leads a group at Pfizer called Men as Allies, which trains men across Pfizer, helping them see, for example, that when they rush into a meeting and quickly sit down, they often literally leave women “with no seat at the table.” The group has helped ensure that women are included as candidates for all job posts and on all panels interviewing job seekers.
Still, that’s not enough, said Martin. Even when women get to top corporate posts their path typically takes longer and involves more criticism than men’s paths, leaving women experiencing burnout at a higher rate than men. “We have to reset the dashboard” to measure not only female numbers in leadership but also the route to get there, said Martin.
Under-representation of women clearly hurts business, exacerbating shortages of tech workers, for instance. That’s why a group of Latin American founders recently launched Laboratoria, a venture piloted in Peru that trains women for tech careers, mainly from low-income areas. The group has an 85 percent job placement rate for its 3,000-plus female graduates, said Gabriela Rocha, its chief operating officer who lives in Mexico. Laboratoria now aims to expand into the U.S., thanks partly to funding from MacKenzie Scott, the philanthropist ex-wife of Amazon’s founder. Said Rocha: “There’s so much talent we’re not tapping into.”
The half-day conference was organized by the New York-based Americas Society, an education group, and the Council of the Americas, which represents major corporations active in the hemisphere. Together they are called AS/COA, with their Miami area office in Coral Gables. Visit www.as-coa.org and click on past events for the live broadcast.
