“Women in Power” testimonial

6 de July, 2021

The importance of gender diversity in leadership positions is essentially a matter of democratic representation and inclusion. It’s about ensuring that the group responsible for making decisions is representative of society or of all the employees and customers of the companies affected by those decisions. That’s why it’s so important that this gender (or other) representation is felt in the leadership of companies and all the institutions that regulate society, both for equal opportunities and because it’s proven that diverse Boards generate better results for business and society.

I don’t think that one sector is more masculine than another, it’s simply that some are lagging behind in this process of balance and equal opportunities. A very current example of the criticality of balanced profiles are the tests carried out in the field of artificial intelligence, applied to decision-making processes in the legal sphere. If programmers are not truly diverse (not just in gender), we run the risk of having algorithms that suggest unbalanced, biased and even unethical decisions.

Leadership itself, I believe, has some gendered traits, with the global stereotype that men are more competitive and women more collaborative, but I don’t think we should generalize. It certainly depends on each person’s personality and their competence for the job. In fact, this is why meritocracy should always reign supreme.

In my personal case, having always lived in Portugal, I have never experienced any gender discrimination, quite the opposite. The entire national education system up to university promotes total equality of opportunity and in my professional activity I have always lived in meritocratic environments that promote talent. Interestingly, the two times I became a mother coincided with promotions to senior positions and greater professional demands. These were challenges that I was able to accept, given the family support network that supported me, allowing the logistics at home to be compatible with the greater demands of the roles I took on at work. But this is also the point that I think really slows down women’s careers in Portugal: motherhood. Above all, this is where the real imbalance of opportunities is felt, not only for women but also for employers. It is imperative to make maternity and paternity leave periods equal, so that it really doesn’t matter whether an employer hires men or women, and so that men who so wish are given the opportunity to participate actively in the first months of a child’s life.

It is only in the 40s and 30s and the generations that follow that this effect has partially begun to be felt, with the consequent participation of men in more active fatherhood at birth.

A good example of this type of measure is the recent decision to pay 100% for teleworking if there is alternating childcare until the end of the first cycle, during the current lockdown period.

It is precisely because of this imbalance that has held back the professional progression of women in previous generations, who would have liked to progress but who didn’t have the support system to do so, that I am in favor of the Quota Law. It’s a law that only makes sense as an accelerator of balance and equality in leadership positions, so that there can then be self-regulation of the promotion of female and male talent on these Boards. At a stage when many Boards are still 100% male, we need to force the change a little by using the female talent already available, so that this balance becomes natural. Ideally, in the future, there will be no need to talk about female leaders, only leaders.

The responsibility for improving is therefore the responsibility of governments, societies (in the education for equality that they must promote) and companies. Edenred, a multinational social benefits company, which I now represent in Portugal, is an example of a company that has made it its mission to promote parity and diversity in its management positions. The company’s values of passion for customers, respect, imagination, simplicity and entrepreneurial spirit extend to

to its 10,000 employees, 52% of whom were women in 2019, with a Board based on the principle of gender balance, with 40% female representation. By 2030, 40% is also the goal in terms of female presence in executive management positions (a commitment expressed in the Next Frontier plan), for all the countries where the company is present.

In Portugal, Edenred’s executive board has a balance of 50%/50% between men and women, for a total team of 65% women. In our case, we have total balance, and we’re even at the point of having to be sensitive to ensuring male parity as well, always with the fundamental aim of ensuring the value of meritocracy, which is essential for the smooth running of companies, as well as society itself.