It’s important to do it, to express your ideas. For us, it was really important to do it in a sustainable way.
Andrea De la Piedra and Mia Perdomo - Co-Founders of Aequales, Latin America
2020 WE Empower Finalist, Latin America and the Caribbean
Ensuring gender equality in today’s world is one of the most fundamental endeavors in obtaining a more equitable, just, and sustainable society. Co-founders Andrea De la Piedra and Mia Perdomo are leading the fight to ensure gender equality through Aequales, a company that brings tools to organizations for closing gender gaps through measurement technology and consultancy services. WE Empower intern, Sidney McKee, interviewed De la Piedra and expands upon how Aequales is furthering gender equality not only in Peru, Colombia, and Mexico but also across the globe.
De la Piedra and Perdomo founded Aequales as a way to make a difference in their communities. Now, Aequales has become the largest gender equality corporation in Latin America. Utilizing advanced technologies and metrics, Aequales aims for the transformative freeing of the workplace through fostering gender equality, oftentimes in organizations that have never explored the issue.
Equality in the workplace
Modernized western countries still have a ways to go before gender equality is achieved, but there have been significant advances in the effort in recent years. Conversely, many countries in Latin America have only started widespread conversations about the importance of gender equality in the workplace within the last decade. As De la Piedra explains, “When we started to talk with CEOs and human resources, they weren’t truly aware of this issue… In some cases, they didn’t even know their own data on the issue”. By highlighting gender gaps in the workplace through measurement technologies, Aequales consultancy services are able to provide effective recommendations on how to promote a more just and equitable outcome. When closing gender gaps in the workplace, De la Piedra and Perdomo are supporting SDG 5 Gender Equality and SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities.
Unlocking society’s potential
Aequales has assisted over 900 companies in Latin America to close their gender gaps. By extension, Aequales has impacted over a million employees in making gender equality a salient issue. This serves to empower the workplace and allows women to unlock their full potential, which stimulates the economy, and creates a just society where every individual is valued and supported. De la Piedra detailed, “This has a real impact in the economy of countries. It has to do with decent work. We don’t only want women to have decent work, we also want them to be in leadership positions”. Through fostering gender equality Aequales is furthering SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Work.
Andrea De la Piedra and Mia Perdomo are change-makers leading the way for gender equality and the myriad societal benefits that result from equitable workplace conditions. When thinking about other change-makers who want to advance the Sustainable Development Goals, but may be nervous to take the first step, De la Piedra has words of wisdom. “We’re sometimes afraid of doing things and saying things, and I think it’s okay to be afraid. But I think we have to do these things and say what we think, and make things possible even though we’re afraid. We have to do it.”