International Women's Day: a. hartrodt relies on female leadership

What can female managing directors do better than male ones? "They are more democratic and charismatic," says Armi C. Perez, Managing Director and one of the founding directors of a. hartrodt Philippines in Makati City, on the occasion of today's International Women's Day. For a decade, the 56-year-old has headed the country organization with 85 employees at three locations in the Southeast Asian island nation. Seven out of nine executives there are women - and there are reasons for that, according to Perez: "Women encourage participation and openly communicate." Many female employees have been working at a. hartrodt Philippines for one to two decades and therefore have "played a major role in our growth."

Four countries in Latin America have female managing directors

In Latin America, too, the freight forwarding company relies on female leadership. The national companies in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia each have a female managing director – like Ivonne Rada, Managing Director at a. hartrodt División Bolivia in Santa Cruz. The 49-year-old has been responsible for 17 employees at three locations for twelve years. Although women are "sometimes less tolerant with frequent mistakes," she says self-critically, they keep up a friendly environment "like in a second family".

#BreakTheBias – careers against stereotypes

Perez and Rada pursued their careers against stereotypes - in line with this year's International Women's Day campaign theme #BreakTheBias. "When I started working for a shipping agent in 1986, this was absolutely a male domain. It opened my eyes to what women can achieve," Perez says. Rada also had to earn her spurs in the conservative shipping industry: "This helped me to cross the bridge between genders." As managing director at a. hartrodt, she does not differentiate by gender when it comes to salary, working conditions or professional training. "Individual competence and a sense of competitiveness are key," Perez emphasizes.

What do the female managing directors celebrate on International Women's Day? For Rada, it's a. hartrodt's recent AEO certification in Bolivia: "Three-quarters of the trainings were successfully completed by female employees." And Perez is proud that the Philippines is the best Asian country in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2021 – number 17 out of 156.