Latin American Leadership in Gender Equality

The Fall Meeting of the American Bar Association Section of International Law continues today in Miami with CLE panels, a luncheon, and a closing reception. One CLE program held today considers the advances Latin America has made in gender equality. The program noted that a 2016 study of 583 companies in 42 countries worldwide documented that although gender diversity was expected to generally stagnate in the next decade, women in Latin America are expected to hold 45 to 50% of all executive positions in corporations by 2025.

The panel, titled "Deconstructing the Myth of Machismo: Latin America's Leadership in Gender Equality," was moderated by the nationally-renowned journalist Eleanor Clift (former Newsweek correspondent, panelist on the McLaughlin Group, and author of books such as Madam President and Founding States and the Nineteenth Amendment). The speakers were:

• Brigida Benitez (Steptoe & Johnson LLP), a past president of the District of Columbia Bar (the second largest unified bar in the country, with more than 100,000 members worldwide) and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center. She has been recognized by Hispanic Business magazine as a “Woman of the Year” and one of the “100 most influential US Hispanics,” and by Latino Leaders magazine as one of the “25 Most Influential Hispanic Lawyers.”
• Juliana van Waveren, a senior consultant at Mercer LLC, who spoke on the comprehensive research study called "When Women Thrive, Businesses Thrive." That is also the name of Mercer's global research and solution platform designed to help organizations drive growth through the active and productive participation of their female workforce.
• Judith I. Lichtman (National Partnership for Women & Families), a guiding and influential force in the women's movement for more than 40 years, and a former president of the National Partnership for Women & Families.

The panel chair was the Honorable Delissa A. Ridgeway, a judge of the U.S. Court of International Trade who has helped the ABA Section of International Law create some of its most interesting and engaging CLE panels.

(mew)