Inspiring Conversations: Carmen Correa and María Noel Vaeza Highlight the Need to Invest in Women

Inspiring Conversations: Carmen Correa and María Noel Vaeza Highlight the Need to Invest in Women

Carmen Correa, Pro Mujer's CEO, and María Noel Vaeza, regional director for the Americas and the Caribbean at UN Women, shared an intimate conversation at the GLI FORUM LATAM 2024, where their vast career experience served as inspiration for the audience.

The theme of this year's International Women's Month, promoted by UN Women, was "Let's Fund Equality." Why, exactly, does UN Women commit to putting the issue on the table? Why is it important to promote gender lens investing?

For us, it is essential because we see what is happening to real women. They don't have access to capital; they don't have access to that fundamental instrument that allows them to grow in their own businesses, in their own ventures. And why don't they have access? Because there is discrimination, and there are biases from those who decide on the credits.

Let me tell you about an initiative that we promoted together with the Inter-American Development Bank in Chile a few years ago. We hired 20 actors and actresses who went to the banks under the same conditions, and guess what happened? The women were offered 25% less credit, simply because they were women.

This year we had the Commission on the Legal and Economic Status of Women, which has been held for the past 68 years in New York, and the topic centered on how to eliminate poverty and the feminization of poverty. The only way to eliminate it is with financing; that's why we decided to talk about investment. Without financial inclusion, it is very difficult for women to achieve that economic autonomy, that economic empowerment that we need so much.

People participating in these events ask me: Carmen, an event about gender lens investing, but they are also talking about health issues, about caregiving topics? It happened to me last year, when an investor said to me, 'Carmen, it's the first time I come to an investment event and they are talking about menopause.' I explained to them what was pushing us to bring these issues to the agenda. What would be your answer?

First and foremost, the institutional priority of UN Women in the region is care. Why? The scarcity of careleads us to inhibit ourselves, it leads us to stop having an aspiration to use our university knowledge because women graduate from universities 60% more than men.So, we are also talking about a very big frustration if you have that knowledge and you can't go out to work, precisely because of the care barrier.

The only good thing the pandemic left us was recognizing that care is fundamental and that care work is unpaid work. That's why we are promoting the creation of integrated public and private care systems. We have analyzed women's time use, and it's revealed up to 24% of the Gross Domestic Product. Much more than oil, gas, mining, or any of the heavy industries. The care industry, the care economy, represents a huge cost in the general economy, and countries are not responding systemically.

I don't know if it's happening to you, but lately, people come up to me and say "The gender issue is no longer of interest." What do you think about that?

I invite you to be indignant with elegance and a smile. But you have to be indignant with hard data on hand. For example, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Economics was 2024, Claudia Goldin. During her impressive 40+ year career, she's been studying the American labor market concerning women. This week we had the great news that Mexico has a female president for the first time in 200 years of history. It's 2024 and there are still first times. It's not possible that we're still talking about first times.

Only 6.9% of CEOs in Latin America are women, and there are only 16% of women on boards of directors. This can't be when we graduate 60% more from universities.They can't tell us we're not prepared.

Without equality, there will be no sustainable human development; without equality, we will not have a peaceful society; and if there aren't more women in democracy, democracy will be halfway there. That is why we have to continue insisting on the participation of women in senior positions, middle management positions, technical positions, and everywhere in public and private administrations; women who can continue being entrepreneurs and have access to technological tools, to capital, eliminating those barriers and biases.

Maria Noel, 2030 is approaching and the sustainable development goals are just around the corner. So, I would like to ask you about your assessment of it. We have made progress in terms of gender equality, what do you think we should be doing to accelerate progress and advancement?

Unfortunately, the sustainable development goals in the region have [only] reached an implementation of 25%. We could reach 37% if we apply acceleration elements and if we look closely at how it can be achieved. But we already know that several sustainable development goals will not be met.

But I always say that there are three fundamental things required to achieve the SDGs. The first one is political will. If there is no political will, how are we going to eliminate violence? How are we going to integrate women into the economy? How can we get people to understand that unpaid work is still work? So we have to catch the attention of politicians, and we have to do it with numbers and with evidence on hand.

The second thing is budgets. We have 0.07% of the UN budget. The bulk of the budget goes to the troops, for peacekeeping. What do women's advancement mechanisms get? A minimal budget, and with that it becomes very difficult to choose what area to work on, to be strategic, and to look for niches.

And finally, a change in attitude, a change in social norms. Otherwise, we won't be able to embrace equality. That change in attitude has to happen in both men and women. We need this new masculinity to be non-toxic; it has to allow us to participate in the full spectrum of the economy, in all sectors of the economy. I still worry about the fact that there are sectors of the economy that are completely devoid of women; it's not possible that in 2024 we still have those realities.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's invest with a gender lens, that's what will make our countries develop and finally be equal once and for all.

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