ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes women's participation in the Mexican labour force and the proportion of women holding leadership positions as managers, officers, members of boards of directors and entrepreneurs. Women have an especially important presence and outnumber men in such areas of business as social services, hotels and restaurants and other services. Examining degree programmes which constitute the largest number of students in the country, based on data from 2004, women show a greater propensity for studying business administration, accounting and psychology, but continue to have low participation rates in the various fields of engineering. Women have achieved extraordinary advances in higher education and are entering a wide range of working environments, including business administration. Concerning the work to strengthen equity in economic matters, the law calls for the inclusion of a gender perspective in public policies intended to reduce poverty. Over the past few years, women business owners and executives in Mexico have achieved an increasing visibility.
