April 2014 — In 2013, the World Council of Credit Unions conducted a study that assessed the barriers to and prevalence of women in leadership positions in Mexican credit unions and identified patterns of obstacles and attributes from case histories. This brief describes the study, which included a baseline census of credit unions, surveys of men and women in leadership positions and interviews with executives. The researchers discuss their findings and suggest strategies to increase women’s participation in managing and leading credit unions, reduce gender disparities and promote women’s access to opportunities and economic growth. 

This brief is part of the FIELD-Support Knowledge Series, produced by the Financial Integration, Economic Leveraging, Broad-Based Dissemination and Support (FIELD-Support) Leader with Associates (LWA) cooperative agreement, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. More information on the series can be found here: http://kdid.org/projects/field-support