For years, the conversation about women in technology was framed in terms of social responsibility. It was a matter of justice, reputation, and commitment to the community. All of that remains true. But the evidence that has accumulated over the past decade compels us to shift the discussion: the benefits of investing in female talent in technology are, above all, economic, and the companies that understand this first are building a competitive advantage that will be difficult to match later on.
The question is no longer whether it's worth doing. It's how much it's costing us not to do it.
The Gender Gap in Technology in Latin America: Where We Stand Today
Latin America experienced an unprecedented digital boom. Between 2023 and 2024, e-commerce in the region grew by 25 percent, and growth of 19 percent is projected for the following three years, according to the report “Unfinished Business: The Ongoing Tech Gender Gap in Latin America”, prepared by McKinsey & Company in collaboration with Laboratoria and published in April 2025. This growth fueled demand for technical talent throughout the region.
However, women did not participate in that boom to the same extent. The same report highlights a statistic that should concern any executive committee: in 2022, the gender gap in leadership positions widened for the first time since 2016. It did not stagnate—it actually worsened.
Context
- Women account for just over 28% of the global STEM workforce, compared with more than 47% in non-STEM occupations (World Economic Forum, 2025).
- Representation declines at every level of the hierarchy. In 2024, women held 29% of entry-level STEM positions, 24.4% of managerial positions, and only 12.2% of C-suite STEM roles (World Economic Forum and LinkedIn, *Gender Parity in the Intelligent Age*, 2025).
- The brain drain begins before the first job: Women who graduated in 2021 accounted for 38.5% of STEM graduates, but only 31.6% of those who entered the STEM workforce in 2022 (World Economic Forum, 2025).
- In Latin America, female enrollment does not exceed 23% in computer science programs or 30% in technology development programs in any of the six countries analyzed. Uruguay leads in female participation in STEM fields with 42.6%, while Chile and Peru have the lowest rates, at 29% and 28.9%, respectively (Girls in Technology: The Persistent Gap, 2024, with data from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay between 2018 and 2022).
The problem, then, is not concentrated in a single point. It builds up throughout the entire career path: in the choice of a career, in the transition to the first job, and at each subsequent promotion.
What are the benefits of investing in women in technology?
Investing in women in technology yields four measurable benefits for a company: a higher probability of above-average profitability within its sector, increased revenue from innovation, access to an additional talent pool in a market with a critical shortage of technical professionals, and better alignment of digital products with a predominantly diverse customer base. These effects are documented in longitudinal studies by McKinsey, the Boston Consulting Group, and the World Economic Forum, and are further reinforced when women make up more than 30% of leadership teams.
Diverse Tech Teams = Better Performance: What the Evidence Says
When analyzing the relationship between gender diversity, technology, companies, and performance, the available research points in the same direction. This is not an isolated study or a passing trend: it is a pattern that has been consistent over the course of a decade.
It is important to clarify what these studies measure: a correlation between diversity and performance, not a proven causal relationship. McKinsey explicitly states this in its methodology. The correlation is consistent, sustained over time, and statistically significant, but it does not mean that hiring women automatically leads to higher profits.
Profitability: the 39% spread
The most cited study in the world on this topic is McKinsey & Company’s “Diversity Matters” series. Its fourth edition, *Diversity Matters Even More* (2023), analyzed 1,265 companies in 23 countries.
The key finding should be stated precisely: companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on their executive teams are 39% more likely to outperform financially than those in the bottom quartile.
The most significant factor is the trend. In the 2015 report, that difference was 15 percent. In 2020, it was 25 percent. In 2023, it was 39 percent. The advantage of diverse companies is not diminishing as the market matures—it is growing. What was a marginal difference in 2015 is now a structural performance gap.
Innovation: 45% versus 26% of revenue from new products
For a technology company, the most relevant metric isn't just profitability: it's the ability to generate revenue from products that didn't even exist three years ago.
The Boston Consulting Group measured exactly that in its 2018 study, “How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation.” Using employee data from more than 1,700 companies in eight countries, it defined “innovation revenue” as the percentage of total revenue derived from products and services launched in the past three years. The result:
Companies with above-average diversity in their management teams reported that 45% of their revenue came from innovation, compared with 26% for companies with below-average leadership diversity—a difference of 19 percentage points.
Nearly half of the revenue generated by the most diverse companies came from recent products. In an industry where the life cycle of a digital product is measured in months, that difference determines who leads and who follows.
It should be noted that BCG measured diversity in the leadership team across six dimensions—gender, age, country of origin, career path, industry background, and education—not just gender. Gender is one of the variables in the index, not the only one.
The 30% Threshold: When Diversity Begins to Show Up in the Results
An important caveat for any action plan: the evidence suggests that the effect is not linear. McKinsey identified a clear tipping point: companies where women make up more than 30% of the executive team are significantly more likely to outperform financially those where that proportion is 30% or less.
In other words, a token hire doesn't make a difference. What produces measurable results is reaching critical mass: enough diverse voices at the table to actually change decisions, challenge assumptions, and reduce blind spots in product design.
The Cost of Not Investing: Talent the Industry Leaves on the Table
The economic argument has a second component, one that is less frequently discussed but just as concrete: the shortage of talent.
Latin America faces a structural shortage of technical professionals. Data from the Inter-American Development Bank indicate that about 80% of companies in the region have difficulty filling job openings in technology-related fields. Similarly, the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that 84% of employers in Latin America and the Caribbean plan to upskill their workforce to meet the growing demand for digital talent.
At the same time, half of the working-age population is underrepresented in those same roles. A company that recruits tech talent without active strategies to attract women is competing for a fraction of the available market—in the region’s tightest labor segment—and paying the wage premium that results from that self-inflicted shortage.
On a macro level, the magnitude of the issue cannot be overstated. In its 2025 Global Gender Gap Report, the World Economic Forum estimated that 68.8% of the global gender gap has been closed and that, at the current rate, it would take about 123 years to achieve parity.
How Gender Diversity in Technology Translates into Results
Statistical evidence answers the “why.” The practical question is the “how.” The McKinsey and Laboratoria study in Latin America—based on 796 surveys of professionals in eight countries, 126 companies surveyed, and 23 interviews with technology and talent leaders—identified three patterns that distinguish the companies that are actually closing the gap.
Expand the talent pool beyond the traditional profile
The data on the transition from college to the workforce is clear: a significant proportion of women drop out between graduating with a STEM degree and landing their first job in the field. For a company, this means that the available talent pool is larger than what appears in its typical hiring processes.
Companies that adjusted their criteria to evaluate demonstrable technical skills and certifications—rather than requiring only a college degree in engineering—immediately expanded their pool of female candidates without lowering their technical standards. The requirement shifted from prior experience to verified ability.
Fix the internal funnel, not just the entry point
Hiring isn't enough if talent doesn't advance. The study by McKinsey and Laboratoria found that, in the region, men receive nearly five times as many promotions as women in managerial roles, and that only 20% of hires for leadership positions at technology companies over the past three years were women.
Among the practices the consulting firm recommends to address this issue are “resume-blind” hiring processes, diverse interview panels, and transparent promotion criteria. Top-performing organizations audit their promotion processes with the same rigor with which they audit their finances, and track the promotion rate broken down by gender as a business KPI, not an HR one.
Build the pipeline in collaboration with specialized organizations
The third model is partnership. Companies that need female technical talent in the short term do not wait for the education system to produce it: they partner with training and job placement programs that work directly with young women, and they participate in designing the curricula so that the training aligns with actual job openings.
It is a model with a twofold benefit: it reduces the cost and time involved in recruiting talent, and it generates verifiable and reportable social impact.
Five Actions with Measurable Returns for Investing in Women in Technology
- Set a quantitative goal of more than 30% female representation on technical and leadership teams, with a defined timeline. Below that threshold, evidence suggests that the impact on results diminishes.
- Redesign job requirements: replace the requirement for a degree with verifiable skills and industry certifications. Revise the language used in job postings and incorporate mechanisms such as “blind resume” screening to reduce bias.
- Measure the promotion rate broken down by gender and report it to the steering committee along with the other operational indicators.
- Establish training and job placement partnerships with specialized programs, participating in curriculum design to ensure that graduates are well-suited for existing job openings.
- Building visible role models: The lack of role models is one of the factors that most limits young women’s choice of careers in technology. Corporate mentoring programs address the talent pipeline for the next five years.
About She is Digital: Trained, Certified, and Ready-to-Hire Talent
She is Digital It is a regional technical training and employability program launched by Junior Achievement Americas and co-designed with IDB Lab, aimed at young women ages 18 to 29 in Latin America.
The program was designed specifically based on the logic described in this article: to expand the pool of available technical talent by drawing from profiles that the traditional market “left out.”
Key Findings
- More than 9,700 women have been trained, and more than 5,300 have graduated from the first two sessions.
- More than 2,500 women have earned certifications in cybersecurity, web development, and cloud computing, with international certifications from Cisco, AWS, and IBM.
- More than 1,700 women have entered the workforce, of whom more than 1,100 work in technology or digital roles.
- The formal employment rate rose from 12% to 31%, an increase of 19 percentage points.
- Average revenue increase of more than 33% following the program.
Other key sources:
- Boston Consulting Group — How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation (2018)
- Women in Technology — The Persistent Gap (2024)