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Baker McKenzie has brought its diversity and inclusion mission to Mexico, a country where entrenched gender bias leads to thin numbers of women in the executive ranks.

"Creating a culture of inclusion is really foundational for Baker McKenzie," Anna Brown, director of global diversity and inclusion at Baker McKenzie, told a crowd of lawyers, human resource executives and others in Mexico City last week.

Baker McKenzie is pushing for greater gender parity globally within its ranks, particularly among its executive leadership. By 2025, the firm aims to have 40% of positions held by women, 40% by men and the rest flexible—meaning those positions can be filled by women, men or nonbinary persons.

This target applies to partners, senior business professionals, firm committee leadership and candidate pools for recruitment.

"Building on this global strategy, that's focused on making a lasting impact, has to take into account the cultural nuances of every geography. That's both a challenge and an incredible platform," said Brown.

Currently, more than 30% of Baker McKenzie's local partners in Latin America are women, as is 55% of the firm's entire staff, including legal and business services professionals.

With the goal of supporting female lawyers, the firm has implemented flexible work arrangements for parents in countries such as Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

A quick count of the male-to-female ratio of partners in Mexico listed on Baker McKenzie's website shows that the firm has plenty of work ahead to achieve greater female representation: male partners outnumber female partners in the country by about six to one.

That means only 14% of the firm's partners in Mexico are female. This percentage roughly mirrors the composition of many executive boards at Mexico's largest publicly listed companies, where women often occupy only one seat, or sometimes no seats at all.

According to the World Economic Forum's 2020 global gender gap report, 36% of senior private sector managers and public sector officials are women.

Baker McKenzie's managing partner for Mexico, Raymundo Enriquez, said he's committed to change.

"We all have to work to change this percentage, and to accelerate a process that is advancing very slowly," said Enriquez, referring to the percentage in the World Economic Forum report. "Diversity in work teams has a direct correlation with productivity and the value added by our organizations."