This year for the day and month of women the celebrations are tarnished by the setbacks in the defense of gender equity.
In the first place, it must be recognized that over time little was done to advance this issue, and sometimes it fell into absurd demands, which gave arguments to those against those advances.
The results in any way are lean. In Latin America, women occupy only 15% of management positions and are due to just 14% of companies, according to a study by the Inter -American Development Bank (IDB). And every time they occupy less managerial positions in Spain, to give an example. Its presence has fallen from the 19.5 % that reached in 2008 to 15.6 % in 2024. It fails to recover values of 2008, according to a report presented by ICSA and EADA Business School.
He International Business Report (IBR) of Grant Thornton He pointed out that progress in the total number of women in senior leadership positions is worryingly slow.
The positive thing is that almost 75% of companies in the world apply equal opportunities, diversity and inclusion (DEI) policies, but that is not enough to solve gender imbalance at the maximum levels of companies.
The gender -based wage gap remains a persistent indicator of inequality.
Surprising then that two thirds of the companies surveyed by the ILO (International Labor Organization) agreed that diversity initiatives improve their commercial results: they achieve greater profitability and productivity, increase their ability to attract and retain talent, promote their creativity, innovation and openness, improve the reputation of the company, and also increase their ability to calibrate the interest and demand of consumers.
When there are gender balance in the Board of Directors, companies have almost 20% more likely to have better commercial results.
That is why those who question programs that defend gender equity are not understood today. That are in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It is a fundamental human right and a requirement to build a prosperous and sustainable world, maintains international organization.
There are large companies that are cutting programs in this regard, as well as are abandoning other goals related to the environment, such as plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Others will not cut those actions, but they will not spread them so as not to create rispideces, particularly with the US government.
And other large corporations already ratified their diversity and equity policies. They surely want to keep their reputation against consumers. They think there is Dei for a while, that there is no innovation without Dei, or market without Dei, and that people are going to organize to boycott or choose or not some brands, depending on or not by those criteria. In the long run the damage can be great.
But to sustain those conquests, what has to change is the culture of organizations, and of societies. It is on that plane where the change can be given. For example, the painter Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix He immortalized Marianne, in his work “La Libertad guiding a people”, about the French Revolution of 1830.
Of course, women are not sufficiently valued in cultural manifestations, as we saw in the movie “María Callas”, directed by Pablo Larráin. Instead of highlighting the virtues of the glorious singer, it gives a pitiful image (he had already done it with Jackie Kennedy in another film).
Women are denied by their condition. My great friend María Kodamaof which the new anniversary of his birth is fulfilled very close to the Women’s Day, He pointed out that she had been pursued fiercely because of being a woman, that if a man had been the heir of Borges the situation would have been very different.
She made me know Héctor Bianciotti, The great writer, a member of the French Academy, with whom I could have interesting dialogues, in the days in which he published “The Slow Pass of Love”, which in the cover includes a photo of María Callas, dazzled, captivated, for whom he considered the “personification of music”, which helped him “to live, to face existence.” Very different from how unfortunate it is shown in the aforementioned film.
It is common for gossip to look for the dark sides of a female character, instead of highlighting his talents. We have also seen it with another “goddess” of music, Martha Argerich, when speaking producers insist on showing certain features of private life, instead of praising their musical virtues.
It is no accident that it is. It would be long to give examples, between those of another film “Little Miss Sunshine “where mother and daughter appear ridiculously personified.
Since other creators have taken care to exalt female figures, such as Borges himself with respect to Kodama, who in his “inscriptions” left us beautiful words with respect to her, who ignored those who fought it, particularly for being a woman.
It is a great task that culture makers have ahead. It is on this plane that equity must be based. Paraphrasing Borges, by the work of culture the human species (without sexual distinction) is saved.
*Fernando Flores Maio is a sociologist, journalist, writer, director of the Social Ecumenical Forum and vice president of the Borges Foundation
By Fernando Flores Maio
