Gender equality: Tec renews commitment to HeForShe movement

With eight new actions, Tec de Monterrey has reaffirmed its commitment to UN Women through the global HeForShe initiative, which seeks to get men to join the fight for gender equality and the eradication of violence against women.

In 2019, Tec de Monterrey and UN Women joined forces through this initiative, which began with nine commitments. To extend this collaboration, they have committed to delivering results in eight more areas by 2026.

At the event, held in the Main Hall of the Rector’s Building on Monterrey campus, the Tec’s Rector and Executive President David Garza spoke about the achievements and challenges of the global initiative.

“Although I’m very pleased that we’re talking about results today, there are still gaps and we need to keep working.

“We need to continue to contribute to changing history. At the Tec, we want to contribute to changes in humanity, and one of those changes is gender equity,” said the executive.

Tec takes stock of progress made in HeForShe

Here are some of the advances that the Tec and UN Women Mexico have achieved through the HeForShe initiative for gender equality and the eradication of violence against women within the scope of this agreement:

• More than half of the Tec’s employees are women.
• The Impulsa Committee, made up of male and female leaders in the institution, was created to bring a gender perspective to processes and decision-making and to promote actions such as having more women in management positions.
• A goal was set to increase the number of women in management positions from 18% (2019) to 30% by 2025, a goal that was achieved two years earlier, in 2023.
• The participation of women in middle management increased to 51%, and they now represent 45% of the teaching staff.
• The Tec participated in gender equality issues in various national and international institutions and organizations.
• There was an increase in the number of service and training points for specialized personnel to provide attention on campuses, including Tecmilenio.
• In collaboration with UN Women, the Tec created the Safe Campuses pilot project, the first educational institution in the world to promote it in its entirety.

“Both women and men need to reaffirm our commitment. It’s not just one part of society that needs to be involved.

“As the Tec signed up to the global HeForShe initiative, we made a gender plan in Tec de Monterrey’s three institutions to get results in those nine commitments,” added David Garza.

Eight new HeForShe commitments

For 2 years, Tec de Monterrey and UN Women Mexico will work on eight new commitments that have been added to the HeForShe initiative.

Inés Sáenz, Tec de Monterrey’s Vice President for Inclusion, Social Impact, and Sustainability, spoke about these new commitments.

“These are ongoing commitments. The HeForShe commitment is never really achieved because when we take certain steps, we discover that attention also needs to be paid to other issues.

“Each commitment is vital today, and each one will be led by a person from the leadership team.

That makes all the difference because it’s not only the Center for the Recognition of Human Dignity that is responsible, but it also involves the entire Tec community,” she said.

It should be noted that HeForShe has indicators to measure compliance with these eight new commitments.

“There are indicators to measure success, and we may discover in 2030 that we need other aspects.

“Our regulations and policies must have a gender perspective, and I believe that our commitments are more focused today because what we need to modify is a structure that will endure and have an impact on inequality,” said Sáenz.

“At the Tec, we want to contribute to changes in humanity, and one of those changes is gender equity.” – David Garza

Tec de Monterrey’s eight new HeForShe commitments for 2024-2026 are:

1. Increase the participation of women in management positions by 2030 and promote equal opportunities for professional and academic development at Tec de Monterrey.
2. Integrate the gender perspective into regulations, guidelines, and policies to institutionalize them. This commitment will help place special emphasis on gender equality.
3. Promote gender equality through learning, research, and teaching processes.
4. Guarantee an environment free of gender violence and discrimination within Tec de Monterrey.
5. Increase the participation of the student community in the promotion of human dignity, gender equality, and the prevention of gender-based violence in high school and higher education programs.
6. Establish a strategy for TecSalud and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences to promote gender equality and environments free of gender violence and all forms of discrimination.
7. Strengthen Tecmilenio’s strategic plan to promote gender equality and violence-free environments.
8. Ensure progress and continuity in the axes of the equality plan to achieve gender mainstreaming.

Gender Equality, a task for everyone

Lourdes Colinas, a Tec graduate and national program officer for UN Women Mexico, explained that it is necessary for society to work together to achieve gender equality since it is not just a task for women.

“It’s not a women’s issue. It’s an issue for the whole of society, and it’s what we at UN Women always reiterate, that it’s an issue of society and that it doesn’t just benefit women; it benefits society as a whole,” she said.

She also spoke about the importance of institutions like the Tec de Monterrey joining this type of initiative and making a commitment for the benefit of society.

“The Tec is a great partner in helping to promote gender equality issues. Without the academic sector and without the transformational sector, which is education, we really couldn’t move forward.”

“What we need to modify is a structure that will endure and have an impact on inequality.” – Inés Sáenz.

Finally, she mentioned that UN Women Mexico and Tec de Monterrey launched a pilot project called Safe Campuses for the prevention of gender violence in March of last year.

“This program has three pillars, and these pillars refer to working within the community to have an impact, with methodologies to raise awareness among the student community, as well as among administrative areas.

“It works by strengthening capacities and creating support networks to prevent and channel cases of violence in particular.”

Safe Campuses also addresses the issue of positive masculinities, which is closely related to the HeForShe commitments, calling on men and boys to also be activists for gender equality.

HeForShe is a movement that began in 2014 and invites men to show their solidarity with women by working together to defend gender equality.

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