By Andreas M. Hartmann and María Lucila Osorio
The benefits of foreign direct investment (FDI) are usually measured in economic terms: job creation, higher exports, and stronger economic growth.
However, the presence of foreign companies in a country can have effects that extend beyond the economy. Research published in Importing Career Opportunities: How Foreign Multinationals Drive Female Leadership in Mexico suggests that foreign companies may also help expand women’s access to corporate leadership positions.
Discussions of women’s leadership often focus on chief executive officers (CEOs) and corporate boards. These positions are highly visible, but they represent only a portion of a company’s senior leadership.
CEOs rely on a top management team (TMT), a group of senior executives who share responsibility for key decisions, including setting strategy, allocating resources, and overseeing day-to-day operations.
These executives play an active role in shaping a company’s most important decisions. Just as importantly, they are often the pool from which future CEOs and corporate board members emerge.
In other words, increasing women’s representation on top management teams strengthens the leadership pipeline. Despite their strategic importance, TMTs have received far less attention from researchers than corporate boards and CEOs [1].
Foreign companies and women’s leadership
The study set out to answer a key question: Who is creating opportunities for women to join top management teams in Mexico?
The researchers drew on Expansión magazine’s annual ranking of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Business, published from 2010 to 2024 [2]. Although the list does not capture every woman in a senior leadership position, its consistent methodology and long track record have made it one of the best-known benchmarks of women’s leadership in Mexico.
The researchers combined these annual rankings with international gender-equality indicators [3], including the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, and data on foreign direct investment flows [4]. Their goal was to determine whether conditions in multinational companies’ home countries were associated with women’s representation on the top management teams of their Mexican operations.
The first finding was striking: nearly seven in 10 women featured in the annual rankings worked for multinational companies, and the largest share of these executives worked for companies headquartered in the United States.
At first glance, this does not necessarily mean that multinational companies are more inclusive. Many are also among Mexico’s largest employers, making them more likely to be represented in rankings of this kind.
A second finding, however, offers a more revealing perspective: women were significantly more likely to hold senior management positions at subsidiaries of companies headquartered in countries with higher levels of gender equality.
In other words, companies based in societies where women have greater access to economic opportunities appear more likely to promote women into top management positions at their operations in Mexico.
This finding suggests that multinationals transfer more than capital, technology, and business expertise across borders. They may also transfer organizational values and management practices that create greater opportunities for women to reach the highest levels of corporate leadership.
Transfer of Organizational Values
Multinational companies often seek to maintain a degree of consistency in their organizational culture across the countries where they operate. Many have global policies governing leadership development, diversity, mentoring, promotion, and talent management.
Although these practices must be adapted to local conditions, they often reflect values that originate at corporate headquarters [5].
As a result, companies based in countries with higher levels of gender equality may create environments that help women advance into senior leadership roles, even in societies where traditional gender norms remain deeply entrenched.
For women looking to advance their careers, these findings point to the types of workplaces where opportunities for professional growth may be greater. They also present an important challenge for Mexican companies.
The advantage observed among multinationals appears to reflect organizational practices that any company can adopt.
Mexican companies can also expand opportunities for women by implementing structured promotion processes, transparent career paths, leadership development programs, mentoring initiatives, and clear commitments to diversity.
Key reference
Hartmann, A.M., & Osorio, M.L. (2026). Importing career opportunities: how foreign multinationals drive female leadership in Mexico. Cogent Business & Management, 13(1)
Other references
- Saeed, A., Riaz, H., & Riaz, S. (2024). Women’s representation in top management teams of emerging markets’ multinationals in developed countries: A legitimacy perspective. Human Resource Management Journal, 34(3), 708–732.
- Expansión. (2010-2023). Las 100 mujeres más poderosas en los Negocios. Accessed August 30, 2024
- World Economic Forum. (2010-2024). Global gender gap report. Accessed May 1, 2024
- Gobierno de México, Secretaría de Economía. (2024b). Inversión extranjera directa. Accessed June 10, 2024, from https://www.gob.mx/se/acciones-y-programas/competitividad-y-normatividad-inversion-extranjera-directa
- Bader, A. K., Froese, F. J., Cooke, F. L., & Schuster, T. (2022). Gender diversity management in foreign subsidiaries: A comparative study in Germany and Japan. Journal of International Management, 28(3), 100921.
- Dwivedi, P., & Paolella, L. (2024). Tick off the gender diversity box: Examining the cross-level effects of women’s representation in senior management. Academy of Management Journal, 67(4), 991–1023.
Authors
Andreas M. Hartmann is a research professor in the Department of International Business at the Tec de Monterrey’s Monterrey campus.
María Lucila Osorio is a research professor in the Department of Marketing and Business Intelligence at EGADE Business School and a contributor to TecScience.
