International Women’s Day: Mexico’s GDP can rise 15% if it includes 8 million women

The gross domestic product (GDP) of Mexico It can rise 15% in 2030 if the Government and the private sector add 8.2 million women to the market, estimated the Institutional Stock Market (BIVA) on the eve of the Women’s Day.

“In 2030, Mexico’s GDP could be 15% higher than in 2020 if 8.2 million women were added to the economy. This implementation has been advancing in recent years, but progress is uneven.” explained this Tuesday the general director of BIVA, Maria Ariza, in an event focused on the role of women in the Mexican economy.

As Ariza explained, BIVA has been working with companies in the financial sector for three years to make them adopt equal pay commitments, a field in which Mexico is lagging behind.

“In terms of equal pay, there is a long way to go. The global gender pay gap has narrowed only slightly in recent years, and it will take us 132 years to close the gap. In Latin America it takes 67 years.” he said, citing data from the World Economic Forum.

Mexican women, he assured, earn 14% less than men, for which they receive 86 pesos out of every 100 earned by male workers.

“Unequal pay is a subtle economic problem that persists in Mexico, and requires everyone’s effort. The impact is a win-win for everyone”Ariza stressed.

The deputy governor of the Bank of Mexico (Banxico), Galia Borja, pointed out that no private company can succeed in an unequal society.

“The presence of women in the labor market is essential for the country’s economy and, nevertheless, it continues to be one of the lowest in Latin America and the Caribbean,” pointed.

One of the main barriers that prevent women from accessing the economy equally, Borja said, is the unpaid domestic workload, which the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) calculates at 47 hours a week.

“It reduces their time to work and prevents them from accessing positions of responsibility”denounced.

Due to the important domestic role that women continue to have in Mexico, explained the deputy governor of Banxico, they had greater difficulties to rejoin the market after the coronavirus pandemic.

Mainly, because the labor sectors in which women have a greater presence, such as restaurants or the informal sector, took longer to recover, and because the closure of schools and care for the elderly doubled their work at home.

Lourdes Colinas, national officer of the UN Women program in Mexico, explained that unpaid domestic care work is equivalent to 26% of GDP, higher than sectors such as manufacturing or commerce.

In the event, in which numerous executives and representatives of financial companies and institutions in the sector participated, they called for increasing the number of female managers, achieving equality between maternity and paternity leave or supporting companies run by women entrepreneurs, among others. proposals.

Source: EFE