In many communities, women are the ones who earn bread day by day. However, most of them lack educational training, which forces them to belong in the informal sector of the economy. Mariate Arnal wants to change this situation with the support of technology.
“As a woman, when you are close to technology you can make a change in every way,” says Mariate Arnal in the Google’s blog.
Technology can give you more economic opportunities.
Mariate Arnal, Managing Director in Google
Arnal is an advocate for gender equality. She works as an executive sponsored by Women @ Google, the company’s largest employee pool. Arnal has been a critical piece in building partnerships with NGOs so that Google workers can help underprivileged women to have STEM classes.
Restless and passionate woman
Arnal studied to become an engineer. She loves math and questions about how things work since she was little. She was born in Venezuela but recently became a Mexican citizen. In her adoptive country, she has a challenge: to create two different strategies for the same country.
“Mexico has a Dickensian quality: it is a country of two stories. You have the technologically advanced on the one hand and on the other, those who have been left behind.”
In his office, Arnal has ideas in progress on a whiteboard. She describes herself as tireless and passionate. Both at her office and abroad, she investigates ways to make things better, such as causing an impact and solving the country’s problems.
With a population of 120 million people, Mexico is one of the top ten markets for Google’s star products: YouTube, Chrome, Search, and Gmail. Six out of ten Mexicans are online. How to attract the other four?
A major obstacle to obtaining the remaining 37 percent of Mexicans online is that connectivity is expensive. Therefore, Arnal presses Google to design products designed for this population. And learn from other countries.
In the coming years, eleven countries will show a significant increase in the increase of new Internet users in the world. Mexico is one of them. Each country presents different Google products. Mariate believes that it is necessary to examine what other countries do to solve problems similar to those of Mexico.
For Mariate, Google Pay is a good example. In both countries, the level of banking is low. Another example is the Go-Jek startup that tries to solve the technological problems of many countries, such as the lack of connectivity.
“Despite the differences that each market has, we can learn a lot from each one, take the best experiences, and explore new opportunities in our country.”
Helping small businesses
It is necessary to develop digital skills to close the gap between technology experts and those not yet connected in Mexico. Small businesses still do not take advantage of digital solutions, such as online sales.
“Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the core of the country’s economy. However, it is not taking advantage of the opportunity that electronic commerce represents.”
SMEs represent 50% of the national gross domestic product. Many of these companies do not see themselves online, and those who do, do not invest more than one percent of their budget to a digital marketing strategy.
For Mariate, the training offered by Grow With Google can help small entrepreneurs learn how to use digital skills for their business, while Google My Business can allow customers to make transactions, such as purchases or reservations.