Women in the corporate world: where companies can and must make a difference

Article by Fernanda Antonelli, Head of the Personnel, Communication and MKT at Horiens, a risk and insurance consulting group. Also published at horiens page on LinkedIn.

2020 is the first year of a new decade. It is scary, but exciting, motivating and vibrant. It makes me think about what we want to leave as a legacy and what we are doing to evolve and improve our lives and those of the next generations. I am 38-year old woman, and I have worked as HR professional of a large company for many years. And I feel all the positive impact I can create. For me, that is the tone of 2020.

In this month of March, on International Women’s Day, the world pays close attention to women’s situation, and there is a consensus that much has been achieved, but, above all, the warning signs must still continue, there is still a lot to be done.

In Latin America, women’s access to universities is one of the aspects that have mostly evolved – in the 1970s, women’s presence in universities was 37%, today our presence is over 55%. This data was provided by Unesco and shows that currently women are the majority in undergraduate degree programs, an excellent information.

However, on the other hand, women in leadership positions in companies remain almost stagnant. In 2016, only 7.3% of women held positions on executive boards of the 100 largest companies in Latin America. The percentage insufficiently increased 2.2% in the last 11 years, leaving Latin America ahead only of the Middle East. These indicators from the Corporate Women Directors International (CWDI), a study center linked to the American institute GlobeWomen, make it clear that we need more focus and mobilization.

And, recently, we have created a work group dedicated to the women at Horiens, a risk and insurance consulting company where I work as the head of the Personnel, Communication and Marketing area. This is a group related to our newly formed Diversity and Inclusion Committee, which intends, through dialogue, to discuss, raise awareness and deepen knowledge about relevant guidelines for people and companies.

In this sense, the group seeks to be a place to speak and listen, and I am sure that many ideas will be transformed into practices aimed at this group’s evolution as professionals and company. And the purpose is also to bring our male members into the debate, stimulating an environment of engagement and learning.

Is that everything we can do? Certainly not – and everything we have done in the past is not enough either. But it is an important step, this means no longer being idle, and instigates new points of view, and opens new paths.
I am sure that this reflects positively in everyone’s well-being and even in positive results for our company. It is amazing how making a difference is simpler than we imagined.

The soil is fertile, let us make the most of it! May this be a decade of great evolution.