Gender economic disparities in Colombia and Mexico

Gender-based economic disparities persist in Colombia and Mexico, characterized by high rates of informality and limited leadership roles for women.

In Colombia, data indicates that while women own a slight majority of urban micro-businesses (51.6%), most operate informally. Approximately 88.9% lack commercial registration and 86.1% have not utilized formal financial services in the past year. As businesses scale from subsistence levels to medium-sized enterprises, female representation as legal representatives drops from 61% to 37.4%, and their involvement in financial decision-making falls from 36.3% to 11.2%.

In Mexico, despite improvements in certain regions like Yucatán regarding education and safety, informal employment among women remains high at 62.7%. While female labor participation reached 46.3% in 2024, women remain underrepresented in technical sectors, such as heavy vehicle maintenance, where participation is only 11.5%. Efforts to address this include initiatives like Scania Mexico’s ‘Técnicas e Ingenieras del Futuro’ program, which recently graduated its first cohort of women for maintenance and service roles.