Patriarchy, a constant in the Mexican stock market

In 2020, with data from 2019, BMV and BIVA companies had 7.74% of the seats on the boards of directors occupied by female executives

Mexico is, for the second consecutive year, the country with the lowest percentage of seats held by women on the boards of directors of companies listed on the stock exchanges of 15 Latin American countries and Spain, according to an analysis led by the regional organization PODER.

The study, led by the Project on Organization, Development, Education and Research (PODER) in alliance with 15 media, analyzes the proportion of female directors in companies listed on the stock exchanges of Spain and 15 Latin American countries.

The main finding for the situation of Mexican female executives is that they represent the lowest presence of women on the boards of public companies; in this case, those listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV) and the Institutional Stock Exchange (BIVA), according to the analysis Women on the Stock Exchange in its 2020 edition.

In 2020, with 2019 data, BMV and BIVA companies had 7.74% of the seats in the boards of directors occupied by female directors, which represented an advance of .56 percentage points.

The slight and slow progress is also explained because the heteropatriarchal practices have led to women remain underrepresented in the most important bodies of public companies in Mexico, according to Alejandra Rivero, deputy director of sustainability and social responsibility of Banregio.

«It does have to do with hetero-patriarchal practices, maybe not in a conscious way, but in a subconscious way. It’s common to seek advice from people who are similar to us, and you do seek someone who will give you advice similar to what you would seek yourself,» explains Rivero, daughter of Jaime Alberto Rivero Santos, founder and chairman of the board of directors of Regional, SAB de CV, Banregio’s controller. The board of Regional does not have female directors.

For Alejandra Rivero, 34, who will be a future advisor to the bank, the initial option was also not to take over the family business herself, but to marry a man who would represent her.

«That bothered me a lot, because it meant that instead of looking for someone to love and be a partner with, she had to be looking for resumes of who could take over. That was something that pushed me to break with the stereotype or that pattern that came from previous generations, where the common thing is that the representation within the council passes to the couple from whom it inherits, in the case of women,» says Rivero, who decided to abandon her career as an architect and study a master’s degree in finance to work in the bank.

According to Eufemia Basilio Morales, a researcher at the Institute of Economic Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), in «the elites still give jobs to men instead of women because of a tradition, machismo is not outdated, even though it is believed that there is no disparity in those sectors.

And that tradition is also perpetuated among women themselves. According to Rivero, «it is very common for women to believe that men are born with the skills to manage business and money, and we give up that power. I used to believe this too, and until we question that belief and want to take that power, that’s when you start taking away all those things that come from outside and there can be a change.