At what job level is female talent lost?

By Fátima Masse

How many women are there in Mexican companies and what positions do they hold? This is a difficult question to answer, since private sector information is - as the name of the sector implies - private and confidential. However, having data on the socio-demographic composition of the workforces would allow us to determine which groups are being left out of formal and better paid jobs.

The Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), in alliance with Kiik Consultores, has for the past three years turned this challenge around by taking advantage of the information reported each year by Mexican companies that participate in the debt and capital markets to measure how many women there are on boards of directors, in relevant management positions and in the total workforce. Unfortunately, the results are not so encouraging.