Chicas Poderosas is a global community that promotes change by inspiring and fostering the development of women in the media and creating opportunities for all voices to be heard.

Mariana Santos founded the organization in 2013, when she was an ICFJ fellow, to close the gender gap in newsrooms, especially in Latin America. Between 2014 and 2015, as a fellow at Stanford University in the United States, Mariana took the organization to the next level.

Since its inception, the goal of Chicas Poderosas has been to promote female leadership and gender equality in the media. Within media companies, women are underrepresented in leadership positions and in intermediate positions. They are also sources of information and protagonists of the news. This generates an editorial agenda with a limited perspective since it excludes voices and issues related to women and dissidents from public debate. Furthermore, the under-representation of women in the media perpetuates inequalities.

To address the gender gap in the media, Chicas Poderosas offers professional training to provide women and dissidents with the concrete skills they need to take their careers to the next level, drive business projects and promote female leadership in journalism. As a community, Chicas Poderosas offers women who work in the media a support network that functions as a space to exchange knowledge and experiences and provide access to opportunities to develop their careers. Chicas Poderosas is also changing the narrative to transform the world, promoting spaces for the creation of collaborative journalism projects.

Vision

Chicas Poderosas believes in a world of informed and equal societies, where all voices are heard.