VisualGPS Creative Trends Culture Better Than Before: Pregnancy and Entrepreneurship in Latin America

Throughout Latin America, women have become crucial to the entrepreneurial landscape and brands have taken notice, too. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 27% of Latin American entrepreneurs are women¹ and, coincidentally, women appear in the same percentage of popular entrepreneurship visuals chosen by brands. When seen, women are represented in positions of authority, not simply as companions to male counterparts. This representation reflects the responsibility we all have to reflect how society operates.

But a key part of Getty Images’ differentiation, and mission to move the world, is our commitment to evolving these established visual norms. And VisualGPS research reveals there is room to make visuals of women entrepreneurs better than before. Throughout Latin America, pregnancy has emerged as an obstacle to success for entrepreneurs; according to BBVA Spark: “The fact that motherhood coincides with the peak of a woman’s career leads investors to have a tendency to invest less in startups led by women.”² And this glass ceiling is present in the visuals of entrepreneurship that brands do engage with: Less than 1% of popular visuals of women working show them pregnant while doing so. When it is seen, pregnancy is clearly positioned as a condition to be hidden: Pregnant Latin American women are seven times more likely to be seen at home in popular visuals than Latin American women overall.

What is missing from images of women entrepreneurs are pregnant women simply existing, and being successful alongside their pregnancy, not in spite of it. Showing pregnancy in all types of professional settings works to offset the stigma of it as something to remain hidden and relegated to the care of close families.

Sources

[1] South Summit
[2] BBVA Spark