North American Management Society Proceedings, March 2014 Generational Differences in Attitudes Toward Women in Latin America* Julia A. Teahen, Baker College Edward F. Murphy, Jr., Embry Riddle Aeronautical University Regina A. Greenwood, Nova Southeastern University Our research study expands the frontiers of knowledge concerning Latin American culture by exploring generational differences in attitudes toward women. We examined generational changes in Latin American attitudes towards women with two population cohorts (2006 and 2012) of working adults in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. INTRODUCTION Our research study expands the frontiers of knowledge concerning Latin American culture by exploring generational changes in the three components of culture: values, attitudes and behaviors. We examined generational changes in Latin American values by studying the results of those values, their attitudes towards women with two population cohorts (2006 and 2012) of working adults in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Based on research on values and culture, those attitudes will affect behavior in the workplace. Managers in the 21st century marketplace face increased global competition, scarce resources, and increasing personnel costs, while customers demand faster, higher quality and cheaper products. An expanded knowledge of the generations-based values, attitudes and behaviors will not only allow business leaders and managers to recruit, retain and lead their employees better, but also to understand their competitors and meet the needs of their global consumers better. (Armour, 2005; Patota, Schwartz and Schwartz, 2007; Weil, 2008). While the values, attitudes and behaviors of adults in workplace in industrialized or post- industrialized areas, such as the United States (US) and Europe, have been extensively studied, systematic evidence-based research on the developed and developing countries in Latin American is scarce (Blancero, DelCampo and Marron, 2007; Olivas-Lujan, 2008; Olivas-Lujan et al., 2009). Latin American countries and other Hispanic populations have been neglected in the research literature, despite Latin America’s richness in the resources, raw materials and labor needed in the global marketplace. Our study encompassed the three generations in the workforce across the four Latin American countries of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico that represent the largest proportions of the Latin American population. Argentina’s is 40.4 million, Brazil’s is 195 million, Columbia’s is 46.3 million, and Mexico’s is 113.4 million. These countries make up 67.8% of the entire population in Latin America and the Caribbean (The World Bank, 2010). Despite the increased attention given to generational differences in the popular in developed countries, only a small number of studies have explored culturally-based generational changes in countries that are slowly moving toward developed or post-modern societies, particularly in Latin America. Our review of the literature found no recent studies of generational changes in the three components of culture: values, attitude towards women and the resulting behaviors of working adults in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico at two different points in time (2006 versus 2012).