EDITORIAL
Women ´ s Role in Panama
Alejandro Escobar Editor
Panama is masculine-oriented country where men and women have very traditional roles - men provide support and women take care of the home - or at least that ’ s what I thought when I first arrived to Panama a few years ago . My perception did not change at first , but recently I started to pay more attention to my environment .
Not long ago , I got the opportunity to start working at a big firm in Panama , and to my surprise , more than 50 % of the leadership positions were held by women . In fact , the male / female ratio in the department I work for is 1:4 - there are 4 females for each male . I never thought this could be possible in a country as young as Panama , but I was pleasantly surprised . After my amazement , I started paying close attention to the proportion of male / female at everyplace I went thinking that the firm I work for could have been an outlier .
Just a few days ago , I was at a meeting with top executives from a local bank , and women executives were majority with just two or three men in the room .
I cannot confirm that this is the trend across Panama , but I ´ m sure that women are not a “ minority ” as many people tend to think .
At the University of Louisville-Panama , women are the majority and men the minority . Apparently , this is the same in the other universities in Panama , which leads me to think that women are taking their education more serious than men . This could be the reason why many women are occupying leadership positions in the country .
The leadership role of women in Panama is more important than what I thought , they are taking control of the country and this could be a good thing . I do not have any proven numbers , statistics or facts , but I do know that Panama had a female president a few years ago . Personally , I think this is more representative than any number or statistics about the leadership role of women in Panama .
LATITUDE
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