MANY INSTITUTIONS OF higher learning
have complex histories in regard to
gender diversity, and Universidad de los
Andes School of Management in Bogotá,
Colombia, is no exception. The school
was founded in 1943 as a junior college
for commercial studies in the Gimnasio
Moderno, a private all-male secondary
school. During the following decades,
the school went through a continuous
process of adaptation while keeping its
commitment to leadership, innovation,
and sustainability.
Gender diversity is one aspect that
has evolved dramatically over the years.
In the early 2000s, there were only four
female faculty members in the School of
Management. Today, there are 22, representing
30 percent of the total. While
this is a major advancement from the
school’s all-male beginnings, we know
we still have far to go.
Change has been particularly visible
over the past two decades, due mainly to
two factors. First, scholars within and
outside of the school have raised the
issue of gender discrimination by researching
the role of women in business
in Latin America. And second, professors
and administrators at the school
have developed initiatives designed to
heighten awareness of gender disparity.
Both of these factors appear to be affecting
the way women are perceived.
AT THE CORPORATION
Since the early 1990s, the topic of
women in management has been
studied by three women researchers at
UniAndes—Luz Gabriela Arango, Mara
Viveros, and Rosa Bernal. However, “the
women issue” gained more institutional visibility in the early 2000s, when it became
a relevant question in the school’s
research agenda.
At the same time, the school participated
in a research project conducted by
Sylvia Maxfield, then at Simmons College
in Boston, Massachusetts. Maxfield
found that women in corporate Latin
America were overcoming longstanding
barriers, which resulted in women filling
35 percent of department and area head
positions. Of the seven countries she
studied, Colombia was the one with the
highest percentage of women in senior
management positions.
More important, her research produced
a series of insights that changed
the perception of women leaders in this
part of the world—a perception that had
long been based on tradition, intuition,
and bias. Maxfield noted that initiatives
imported to Latin America from the
U.S. were not likely to succeed unless
they were modified to accommodate
the common cultural attributes of Latin
American organizations. She also provided
a guideline for developing gender
diversity practices specifically aimed at
Latin American organizations.
Other research has investigated the
differences that exist among female
managers in various Latin American nations.
For instance, Alice Eagly of Northwestern
University in Evanston, Illinois,
and a group of Latin American researchers
conducted 162 surveys in 17 Latin
American countries. The main findings
showed that there were many more
commonalities among these women
executives than there were differences
by country. This was not a great surprise
given that top Latin American managers are like first cousins: They have largely
equivalent educational levels, and their
upbringing, personal life histories,
values, and goals tend to be very similar.
Women most often mentioned three
barriers on their road to upper management
positions: gender stereotypes,
work-life balance, and leadership style.
Some faculty at UniAndes are striving
to change discrimination patterns at
Latin American organizations. Among
those is Maria Consuelo Cárdenas,
co-author of this article. In 2002, Cárdenas
and a team of support staff launched
a series of biweekly workshops about
obstacles facing women in business, as
part of the school’s executive education
programs. While some are aimed at raising
gender awareness among men, most
are targeted at women professionals.
The workshops for women have three
main objectives: to help participants
become aware of what it means to be a
female leader, to help them identify the
changes that this awareness brings, and
to enable them to integrate the different
aspects of their professional lives to
achieve work-life balance. Participants
are expected to write down the changes
they have introduced in their lives and
share these with workshop coordinators
and colleagues. This creates a cycle that
raises awareness even more.
ON THE CAMPUS
While it’s important for UniAndes to
work on gender stereotypes in corporate
settings, it’s necessary to address the
issue at the university level as well. One
way to achieve progress is to make faculty
and students aware of the implicit
gender biases that are behind many everyday decisions at the school. Cárdenas
and her team have created an in-house
initiative called “Equal to Equal.” (See graphic at left.) Among
other things, it consists of a series
of thought-provoking gender-based
vignettes that have been posted around
campus, as well as comparative participative
data by gender.
The initial campaign was installed
around one of the main staircases. It
included data about gender differences,
and a design by Japanese artist
Kazunori Shiina rendered in pink and
blue. The pink side diminished as the
design went up the stairway, and text
on the floor said, “The road to the top
is different for men and women.” At
the same time, faculty and students
wrote testimonials about their experiences,
and these were posted on a
common website.
Reactions varied. Some students celebrated
the information. Others rejected
the testimonials by posting their comments
online through the #equaltoequal
hashtag or by writing their thoughts on
Post-it notes and placing these on the
data installations.
But new vignettes keep the conversation
going. For instance, the latest versions
question stereotypes of women’s
tasks by presenting advertisements that
show how a men’s magazine would look
with the same messages.
IN CLASSROOMS AND STAFF ROOMS
These activities not only have inspired
self-reflection among the faculty and
staff, but also have led the School of
Management to revisit “the women
issue.” The school has held focus group
discussions with women professors to
determine what their experiences have
been. These discussions make it clear
that unconscious gender biases—in both
men and women—protect the status quo
and promote inertia. For instance, women
professors report that administrative
personnel tend to favor male professors
when finalizing class schedules or providing
support for classes and trips.
Young women professors perceive
that their students manifest more
respect for male professors, yet it is difficult
to know if they are disregarded because
of their age or their gender. Some
feel discriminated against in terms
of promotions as they compare their
career advancements to those of male
colleagues. Professors who are young
mothers feel they are left out of executive
education class schedules because
their family commitments mean they
cannot always teach on weekends.
Senior women professors have felt
disadvantaged, too. They note that in
collegial meetings their ideas frequently
are ignored until male professors propose
the same ideas, at which point the
contributions are accepted and valued.
Women also perceive that men raise
their voices to shut out women’s voices.
Moreover, many women don’t expect
men to help the situation improve.
Only a few women identify senior male
colleagues as supporters who believe
women have been underrepresented in
decision-making positions at the school.
Many perceive their more senior male
colleagues as uninterested and egoistic.
IN THE FUTURE
Are these perceptions just that—imperfect
representations of reality? Perhaps.
Even so, changes are already under way.
Today, newly hired women professors
are much more aware of gender issues in
their relations with colleagues, students,
and administrators. For the moment,
they have not chosen to come together
to present their experiences as a gender
issue. But we expect we will have more
open discussions on these matters, and
we also expect that the school will make
material changes in processes and practices
in the future.
Two factors make us hopeful. One is
that young male professors seem to have
a pervasive awareness of gender issues
and are much more willing to support
women than their older counterparts
are. Another is that diversity itself is
such an important topic today. We see that gender diversity interplays with
other dimensions of diversity, such
as age and national origin. We believe
that—to achieve diversity along any
dimension—every organization will
need to make deliberate adaptations
in governance and institutional design,
as well as culture.
At the university level, administrators
could promote cultural
change by making it clear that it is
unacceptable to use discriminatory
language against women. They could
bring about institutional change by
hiring so many women professors
that it becomes impossible to fall
prey to the implicit Latin American
bias against women in academia.
Such a practical approach could serve
to right gender imbalances while
fitting with the Latin American predisposition
to avoid conflict.
At UniAndes, a new woman dean—
Veneta Andonova, co-author of this
article—has spurred new conversations
about the women issue. To
many, her case demonstrates one of
the points of departure in all gender
research: that women tend to have
different leadership styles and strive
to bring a balance between highperformance
goals and a social contract that emphasizes well-being.
Open discussions about diversity
have already started at the
UniAndes School of Management.
These conversations are leading
the administration to create a more
structured agenda aimed at correcting
gender imbalances. Time will tell
what the final results will be—but we
are optimistic that we can improve
the level of diversity in Latin American
business schools and benefit
from the talents and energy of all.
Maria Consuelo Cárdenas is a full
professor at the School of Management
at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá,
Colombia. Veneta Andonova became
dean of the School of Management in
November 2019.
This article originally appeared in BizEd's March/April 2020 issue. Please send questions, comments, or letters to the editor to [email protected].
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