Pegasystems makes inroads in gender diversity in Brazil

The Brazilian subsidiary of software firm Pegasystems has reported it is making inroads in driving gender diversity in its leadership team.

The company, which had been present in Brazil over the last decade through partners and launched its own operations in the country since 2019, has hired 20 executive-level roles in 2020.

According to the company, women represent half of the senior roles in its Latin America operations. Female leaders hired in Brazil by the company over the last few months include Anna Cotta, head of human resources; Juliana Moreira, head of regional marketing; head of alliances Daniela Fontolan and Elenita Betiol, who leads customer relations.

"One of my priorities when forming the Pega team in Latin America is to guarantee diversity in our team and I am very proud to say that 50% of the regional and Brazil leadership team is made up of women," says Maurício Prado Silva, president at Pega for Latin America.

"We think of people as long-term assets and we want to create an innovative and inclusive culture, to better serve our customers here in the region," he adds.

Women still represent only 20% of the Brazilian IT sector and 21% of technology teams in the country have no female representation, according to the Brazilian Association of Information Technology Companies (Brasscom).

That is despite the predictions from Brazil's Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea) that women should outpace men in terms of participation in the Brazilian workforce within the next decade.