As part of the commemoration of International Women's Day, which is celebrated every March 8, the Chamber of the Digital Economy of Uruguay (CEDU) sought to highlight the experience and talent of some leaders in the sector who have managed to position themselves and develop their careers in a field that has experienced strong growth.
Carolina Maubrigadez, Marketing Manager at Fenicio eCommerce and teacher at Senpai Academy; Natalia Macri, CEO & Founder of Oferta Exportable and Vice President of CEDU; Florencia Pan, Marketing & E-commerce Manager at Mosca Hnos; Carolina Torterolo, General Manager at ZonaTecno; and Beatriz Ponce de León, Director & Uruguay Country Manager of Arbusta, reflected on female leadership in the sector, the challenges they faced and the importance of generating development opportunities for women to break the "glass ceiling".
Natalia Macri, said that the digital ecosystem, "as a new structure and with so many challenges and uncertainties, generates an ideal environment for change". "It is made up of young people eager to break paradigms and those who are not so young are (we are) of the 'chameleon' profile, so we are very adaptable. In this context, women find in the digital ecosystem a space of peers to develop ourselves," said Macri.
Florencia Pan believes that the well-known term "glass ceiling", in relation to a limitation in the career advancement of certain people within organizations, is "the clearest definition of the reality that still exists". In this sense, she emphasizes that "very few" organizations have the same quota of women and men in their work teams, and "this is generally amplified in management positions".
"If we look around us, this occupational segregation between genders tends to happen in the digital economy ecosystem and in all other existing ecosystems. It is certainly not an explicit limitation, but it is a reality that women have to live with every day and, in my opinion, that represents a clear obstacle," she said.
Beatriz Ponce de León pointed out that in her company "more than 60% are women". There is an effort to encourage more women to join, in an industry "in which women represent less than 30%," she said. All the interviewees are committed to "positive leadership", that is: working with humility and honesty, promoting teamwork, developing talent and empowering people.
In relation to the conformation of the work teams, the advantage of diversity was also unanimous. "Talent has no gender. Different points of view always enrich", said Ponce de León. Macri bets on the diversity of the teams. "I believe in complementarities. Whether it is gender, age, education, skills and experiences (...) I understand that we have a lot to learn from men and also to teach them," he said. Pan pointed out that, beyond the virtues that represent each gender, "it is very good in the workplace that men and women know each other as different individuals and learn to support each other for better cooperation and better results".
According to Carolina Maubrigadez, one of the most interesting challenges for women today "is to be encouraged to bet on careers that have traditionally been performed mostly by men. For this, it is important to make visible new opportunities for development at the academic and labor level, through initiatives such as Digital Women and Girls in tech. "Fortunately, in the field of eCommerce we see many women participating actively and in a very good way," he added.
Maternity, in particular, should not be an obstacle in the business and/or professional development of women, but for many, it is, says Macri. "That is why from the place we occupy, we must facilitate and promote a favorable environment for women to decide their professional and family future without being judged and dismissed for it," she said. For Torterolo, one of the keys for today's leaders is to set an example.
"From the place I occupy, I feel the challenge and the responsibility to promote in others what they promoted in me. Also, from my role as a woman leader, to demonstrate to the environment that we have the capacity to take a company forward, that we can occupy managerial roles, directors or whatever we want to be," she said.
And he concluded: "We have to work a lot on empathy to move towards a more equitable and egalitarian society".
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