By Babel

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Women, oppressed or empowered? It is the name of the book that Fundación Banorte published with a detailed analysis on “where are the Mexican women of the 21st century”. The results are clear: there are successful businesswomen and university women; others more migrating to support their families and 28.7% more leading their households.

In other words, there is an undeniable empowerment of women in recent years, but there is still a long way to go because if we only contextualize that percentage, it means that two out of every seven Mexican households have a woman in charge.

If one of the principles of gender equality is that women have control over their economic resources to be independent and empower themselves, where does the balance tip?

Oppression or empowerment

According to the Association of Entrepreneurs of Mexico ( ASEM ), 11.2% of women undertake (in micro, small and medium businesses), while in other Latin American countries, such as Peru, 29% of them do so. If we speak of Senior Management, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), women occupy 31% of the positions, 7% are members of the board of directors of Mexican companies; and only 2% of Mexican women are high-impact entrepreneurs (compared to 6% of men), according to the OECD .

Many of them have found in their companies a springboard to boost their careers. Organizations like Babbel actively fight for gender equality. Of its 700 employees, more than half are women. Including more than 50% of the leadership positions.

This work is amplified with “Stranger Talks”, a biweekly platform that Babbel offers so that the people of the company speak before an audience about diversity and its wide range of topics: gender, race and religion, among others.

But not all companies operate the same. In Mexico, since 2015 there is the Mexican Standard on Labor Equality and Non-Discrimination , which has certified 158 organizations. But what about the rest?

Faced with this scenario that they know well and apart from other government initiatives, empowered women are organizing to mentor other entrepreneurs and leaders and thereby advance the much desired gender equality.

To commemorate this International Women’s Day 2019 , we leave you the Guide of groups that are leading mentoring programs to empower women and generate a chain reaction that can change the face of Mexico:

Group founded by Gina Diez Barroso, businesswoman and director of several international companies. She is the only Mexican in the C200 (Women Business Leaders in the World) and represents Mexico in the W20 initiative of the G20. Its feminine empowerment agenda is very clear and in addition to the “Women in Leadership” Program, which involves several workshops; and individual courses for the personal and professional development of women, offers great value in motivating networking among the women who attend.

Its creator, Ana Victoria García , after working 6 years in a business accelerator, realized that there were few companies founded by women. She began mentoring women entrepreneurs until she created her own company that has an academy, an accelerator and a networking network of former students to also support the new generations. It is #CulturaWomenPreneur in favor of gender equality.

^{Image: CREA via Instagram}

Entrepreneurship is not only about creating high-impact businesses. In Mexico there are millions of women in rural, semi-urban and urban areas who still do not have the voice or the tools to undertake and they can. That was what Leticia Jáuregui saw when she finished her university studies and did field work in Zacatecas, Jalisco and Michoacán. He saw a Mexico that he did not know, that is why he founded -in 2008- C REA Communities of Social Entrepreneurs , a non-profit organization that helps women from marginalized communities to undertake businesses such as: selling sweets, chocolates, hot dogs or creams for the body. And to those who have already started, they give the necessary mentoring to obtain more income and generate a greater impact in their communities.

It was born in 1997 and wants to promote and develop its leadership by making women trust in their own ability to “YES I CAN”, and thus be able to climb positions within the companies in which they work. There are programs for solving problems, meeting objectives, and viewing company problems from a different point of view. Their method is based on the fact that in Latin America and the Caribbean only 50% of entrepreneurs with low-growth companies and 56% of those with high-growth businesses have had a mentorship, necessary to grow and increase their impact on society.

This civil association led by Verónica Soto Parra brings together businesswomen and entrepreneurs nationwide. That is, there are them in different states of the Republic and emerged from the Second Generation of 10,000 Women of the Goldman Sachs-ITESM World program. What it seeks is to generate collaborative networks by offering female-to-female mentoring. To be part of this group, an annual membership of 3,000 pesos is required, although they also have free online training on entrepreneurship, marketing and innovation.

And because girls are also women and entrepreneurship is not only born, it is done, this initiative of the Secretary of Public Education and the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) created a network of mentoring of successful women in science, technology , engineering and mathematics, to empower girls and adolescents to make a career in these STEM careers, and to break the stereotype that only men dedicate themselves to it.

^{Image: Business Kids via Instagram}

As the feminist movement has a gender equity approach where inclusion does not depend on gender but on talent, we include in this list Business Kids, which teaches girls, boys and adolescents – from 4 to 14 years old – to reaffirm their self-esteem and leadership, develop your talent in business and grow empowered, knowing that entrepreneurship is a way of life, not just making money.

An extraordinary cherry on the cake to commemorate International Women’s Entrepreneurship Day , which will disappear the day gender equality is part of normalcy and not a cause to fight for.