Does a female president change the game?

For the first time in history, simultaneously, two Latin American countries, Argentina and Brazil, are being led by a woman — Cristina Kirchner and Dilma Roussef. In Chile, the current election has not yet finished but the finalists are both women.

Between Argentina, Brazil and Chile, three women are set to govern more than half of Latin America population and manage the largest part of Latin America’s GNP.

Coincidence? I do not think so.

But, what I find rather intriguing is that the presence of women in top government positions is much higher than that of female leaders in the corporate world.

Brazil, for example, in 2013 only 14 percent of the companies had women CEOs. The presence of women on corporate boards is even lower at 13 percent. And what is more frustrating is that the number of women in leadership positions, such as managers , directors and VPs, has decreased from 23% to 20% in the last year, according to the consultancy Grant Thornton.
Why is there such a discrepancy between politics and business? I have some hypotheses …

1. The government seems to be more open to change than Big Business. Although companies in Latin America are extremely involved in finding ways to have more women in leadership positions, the fear of change is still winning the game.

2. In the three countries, Argentina, Brazil and Chile, all of them have direct elections for President. Possibly, the representation for the female population has an affect on the this.

3. Thirdly, these three women have men “sponsoring” their political careers. Cristina Kirchner was the wife of the former President Nestor Kirchner. And, Dilma Roussef was elevated to President with aggressive backing from Lula, the former and popular President of Brazil. Michelle Bachelet, one of the Chilean female presidential candidates, is the daughter of a highly prominent and influential General.

Going back to women in the private sector — what can Latinas do to emulate our country leaders? This is a tough question.

What I know is that, in the case of my native country Brazil, we have yet to see the impact of Dilma’s actions and attitudes in the lives of Brazilian executive women. She still has one year on her mandate and I hope her leadership could inspire companies to bring more women into their C-suites.

By Cecilia Troiano

Cecilia is the General Director of Brazilian branding agency Grupo Troiano.