Gender disparities persist in Mexican technical sectors and Colombian business leadership

Reports from Mexico and Colombia highlight ongoing gender disparities in the labor and business sectors. In Mexico, while female labor participation reached 46.3% in 2024 according to INEGI, women remain underrepresented in technical roles. Specifically, in the heavy vehicle maintenance and support sector, female participation is only 11.5%. In response, Scania Mexico launched the ‘Técnicas e Ingenieras del Futuro’ program, which recently graduated its first nine women to work in maintenance and service in the northern Valley of Mexico.

In Colombia, the Anif 2025-2026 MiPyme Survey reveals that while women lead 55.2% of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), their influence diminishes as companies grow. Women represent 61% of subsistence-level businesses, but their presence as legal representatives drops to 37.4% in medium-sized companies. Furthermore, female involvement in financial and credit decisions falls from 36.3% in subsistence businesses to just 11.2% in medium-sized enterprises, indicating a significant gap in economic decision-making power as businesses scale.