Ethical Boardroom - How a pandemic and societal pressures are altering Latin American boardrooms

Egon Zehnder’s 2020 Global Board Diversity Tracker, which analyses companies with a market cap of €6billion, put the number of board seats held by women in Latin America at 11.6 per cent in 2020, an increase of only 3.3 percentage points in two years, compared to 32 per cent in Western Europe and 27 per cent in the US and Canada.1

There are two major forces at work that may alter the pace of advancing women’s representation on boards in the region – the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing societal pressures. The pandemic impacted the talent pipeline and shrunk capital markets in some countries, decreasing opportunities for investors to push for independent or diverse board members. At the same time, social unrest is forcing diversity to the top of the boardroom agenda, potentially accelerating the pace of change in some countries. 

We examined the board diversity landscape across five countries – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico – to find out how these two forces are affecting board composition and governance.

Full story: How a pandemic and societal pressures are altering Latin American boardrooms, on Ethical Boardroom (15 September 2021).