Breaking glass: women executives in Latin America are moving ahead, and in positions traditionally held by men.

Men still hold most of the top jobs in today's business world, but women are gaining ground. Of course many still hold those jobs that appear to be typical of their gender: marketing, human resources and public relations. But in Latin America, more and more are becoming heads of finance, breaking new ground despite being in a region that lags when it comes to advancing women to senior-level posts.

"One of my biggest success stories has been being part of an extremely masculine world," says Cecilia Fantinelli, director of finance at Hitachi Data Systems in Brazil. "Once I would be in a meeting of 50 financial directors and I was the only woman." With more than 15 years in the technology market directing finance and managing operations at Brazilian and multinational companies, Fantinelli made it to the post of director of finance at Computer Associates for Latin America. She has overseen mergers and acquisitions and has run a US$180 million budget.

Her first goal is to make Hitachi Data Systems grow and post more positive results. She enjoys challenges and knows she is close to becoming a chief executive officer of a corporation one day. Although Fantinelli says she has never had problems moving ahead with her career as a woman, she does admit that at times she has had to make the difficult choice between work and family. "In my situation with two children, my husband and I support each other, otherwise it would be difficult to move ahead," Fantinelli says. Generally, male executives quit because they get better job offers, while women executives quit for family reasons, according to a study carried out in Mexico by Gina Zabludovsky, a sociologist and researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma, a Mexican university. "Women feel they have to decide between their careers, the spouses and motherhood. They go through a very rough crisis," Zabludovsky says.

Having and raising children can be a tough task for working women. It's like having two jobs, one in the office and one at home. "We have to understand that it is a social issue and not an individual one, because it is still thought that the only one responsible for domestic tasks is the woman," Zabludovsky says. The sparse presence of women in finance also stems from education and organizational culture. "Men are trained for positions of control and women are trained for more emotional activities," says Zabludovsky. "Organizational culture reproduces social roles in terms of gender and the only positions open for women are to be secretaries and very little for directors."

Many executives feel that hiring a married woman will mean losing her for family reasons, or that she can't be promoted to work in other countries because her husband won't go with her. A man, on the other hand, can be sent elsewhere because his wife and children will follow him, Zabludovsky adds. A survey carried out by Mercer Human Resource Consulting in 2006 supports that view. The study found that although the numbers of women given international work is growing, few of them are accompanied by a spouse, when compared with their male counterparts.

The study also revealed that Latin America is the least advanced region in the world when it comes to having women in powerful corporate positions. Companies in the Asia-Pacific region have 15 times more women in these types of positions compared with 2001. The United States has four times more. Latin American organization have 1.5 times more, the study says.

In the last decade, the employment breach between the two sexes narrowed, yet it didn't narrow by much. It's still vast. In 2005, women accounted for 40% of the global workforce, and 52.2% of adult women were actively working, compared with 51.7% reported in 1995, according to the International Labour Organization. The big question left is why aren't women being hired for high-ranking positions at the same pace with which they enter universities and the labor force.

"The fact that we have increased our presence in the labor market has not necessarily led to a redistribution of responsibilities in the home and community," says Marcela Mejia, director of finance at Siderurgica de Occidente, a Colombian steel company. Mejia, who has been with the company for 18 years, has been key to turning Sidoc from a small factory to a large manufacturing facility with 350 employees and another 100 working for it indirectly. Last year, the company was one of the most valuable in the country to its shareholders. For Mejia, being a woman has not been a barrier to her career, although there hasn't been a lack of brushes with machismo. "A Mexican supplier asked for an appointment to negotiate orders for the coming year. When I told him that I would be the person he would be dealing with, he refused. He said it was a big business deal and that he felt more comfortable speaking with the general manager, who was a man," Mejia says.

Perspectives. Many women in leadership positions believe the future is bright. "The perspectives are very good. We are finding more and more room for professional growth. We are very qualified to look for higher positions within our companies," says Eliane Lustosa, director of finance at Abril, a Brazilian media company.

Lustosa, who has been on the job since November of 2005, led a debt restructuring. She also oversaw the sale of a 30% stake in the company to South African investors. Her resume includes posts such as finance director at Pontro Frio, a Brazilian retail chain, and head of finance and investments at Petros, the state-run oil company Petrobras's pension fund. More flexibility would help women go higher, Lustosa says. Experts say companies should work to ensure more fairness in company-wide positions when dealing with work, family and education to get both men and women in positions where they traditionally aren't found.

"My most important achievement has been to maintain a balance between my life and my work on par as I progress with new challenges at work. The company allows me to be flexible and work at distance through technology and remote connectivity," says Petrina Thomson, an Australian director of finance for software developer Sun Microsystems.

MARISOL RUEDA * MEXICO CITY