This Wednesday the streets of several cities in the country will be dressed in purple again. Avenida 18 de Julio, in Montevideo, will be the epicenter of a new march in which women will march to defend their rights and stop violence against women. This year The slogan of the Intersocial is “Feminist Struggle against hunger and oppression”. Among the women who will make the tour that begins in the Plaza Libertad and ends at the University of the Republic building at 6:00 p.m. there will be several leaders of the business sector, who, in addition to the well-known glass ceiling, recognize that there is a “sticky floor” that makes it difficult for women to advance in companies.
Some of these women explained to Coffee and Business Why do they choose to take to the streets to march in the International Women’s Day.
economic empowerment
Virginia Staricopresident of LaNave Multimodal and Fundación LaNave, will march for economic empowerment and equal opportunities.
“I march because equality is not yet established in our culture. We have to continue working to raise awareness about equal opportunities. Economic empowerment and the freedom of women to decide are my struggles because it is my story and that of my mother, ”she explained.
She has been marching for several years, convinced that “this is still not resolved” and because she hopes that by making the new generations aware of gender equality and the right of women to have the same development opportunities as menThey can change the future.
“As a woman it is important to know that one can fulfill all roles”he said and stressed that he still sees problems of gender inequality in the business sector.
Diego Battiste
Virginia Starico
sticky floor for advancement
Giovana Lorenzi, Director of KPMG’s Legal Advice Department, will march because The feminist seems to her “one of the most just causes there is”.
“I march because it is a day to commemorate an innumerable chain of women who have been fighting for more equitable communities. At the beginning women did not have the right to property or education, today the struggles are different: We fight for the wage gap and for them to recognize us in jobs in the same way as men. Many times we are more productive and we are more qualified and yet we have a sticky floor for advancement, due to stereotypes that still reign in public and private organizations”, she highlighted.
She has been accompanying the march for years, choosing to be a protagonist and not a spectator because she believes that moving collectively will make society aware and that this will lead to change. In the areas of business decision-making, the stereotype still reigns that the greatest responsibility goes hand in hand with a man and not with a woman, highlighted and maintained: “many times we are more capable and we produce more and the one who rises is the man.” The incorporation of women to the directives has occurred due to the feminist struggle, she said, but “there is still a lot of cloth to be cut.”
The businesswoman alluded to the strike called by the PIT-CNT under the slogan “class, anti-racist and anti-capitalist feminism”. Lorenzi stressed that this anti-capitalist look represents a “sharp look of the movement, which implies putting women against women, she opined and highlighted:” I think the world is going the other way.
Giovana Lorenzi
Raise your voice for new narratives
Mariana Chilibroste, director of Sellin, will march because mobilizing and giving voice to a problem “is what makes visible the prevailing needs that we have as a society,” such as the lack of equality between men and women, she said.
For her it is important to “incorporate equity as a way of doing and living”because “future generations are the ones that inherit things that we did not know how to solve, that is why we need to develop future generations that grow up in another paradigm and that create other narratives,” he indicated.
Violence is inadmissible, he mentioned, in all its forms and for all people. That is why he also chooses to march, because he bets “on the presence that says but also empathizes and in which opportunities are found.”
In addition to marching, the businesswoman will participate in the event organized by the Embassy of the United Kingdom, Leader for a day, in which young women will be able to accompany different leaders from the public and private spheres, with decision-making positions, on a day of work.
Leonardo Carreno
Mariana Chilibroste
meeting and reflection
Lucía Cabanas, manager of Marketing, Sustainability and Corporate Communication at Itaú Uruguay, and executive director of Fundación Itaú, will march this year because she is motivated by the meeting and “the strength of collective action to make visible the cause of gender inequality.”
For her, joining the 8M mobilization is “responding with presence to a social call where everyone is summoned to make our rights visible.”
“The 8M mobilization has a lot of power, it moves me deeply. Being part of that moment of meeting, of reflection, of expression of that diversity of women who take to the streets and sharing it with loved ones is important and moving for me,” she reflected.
Women on the street who question
Agustina Vitola, director of Cuchara Food Design, will march because 8M women “continue to see themselves relegated to the most domestic spheres and because meeting and marching together generates a collective conscience”Furthermore, because “there is a lot to work on and achieve in the field of entrepreneurship”.
For many years, she has joined the feminist mobilization, which brings women into the public sphere and which still “generates discomfort,” she said, which explains why she is leaving. She also highlighted that on this date the woman, historically connected to the home, goes out on the street.
“It is about understanding how the condition of a woman generates a pile of limitations”he mentioned.
According to him, many entrepreneurs face a halt in their professional and business growth because the care issue “is not 100% resolved, either from the State or what has to do with domestic care,” for example who are mothers, he explained.
In her case, the business she runs together with Soledad Corbo is made up of women. They work in the gastronomic field, where inequities are seen, she highlighted. Although most women are in charge of food tasks at home, in the workplace, women in charge of kitchens or in chef positions do so in a lower percentage than men, she said, close to 18 %.
“Women are the ones who keep the cultural, botanical and patrimonial heritage alive, and in general this social role is not recognized. The march is an instance to put gender inequality on the tablebecause in everyday life it seems to be a topic that matters little or that causes us discomfort, because it makes us question ourselves and there is no area that is questioned, not even kitchens, companies, education, science, unions or the State”, added.
Diego Battiste
Agustina Vitola and Soledad Corbo
For her there are plenty of reasons to march, for the women who ancested her, because “thanks to them we are where we are” and for future ones. “For a freer world, with equal rights and above all without gender violence, which affects us all, men and women”he concluded.
Women in companies
Data from 2020 from the World Bank showed that in Uruguay, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could increase 13% if women participated in the labor market the same as men. 11% of management positions that year were held by women; 12% of businesses were owned by women and 8% of those working in the industry were women.
These data were disseminated by She Trades Uruguay, an ecosystem of integrated solutions that seeks to empower women through trade, and which emerged as an initiative of the International Trade Center (ITC), as a contribution to the Organization’s Sustainable Development Goals. of the United Nations (UN).
