More than 900 business and professional women from 75 countries, including Afghanistan and Iraq, are meeting for an annual summit to discuss ways of advancing cross-border ties and accelerating economic development for women.
Summit President Irene Natividad says the annual event gives women the opportunity to share their talents, vision, experience and success.
"So, we are asking some women - corporate women - to give their impressions of the skills that have been effective for them," she explained. "The summit is about exchanging what you have learned, so that I [women starting out] don't have to start from zero."
Batya Brykmon, vice president of Starwood Hotels-Latin America, says her aim is to help young women advance. She says this is a reward in itself.
"It has no price, and for them, you can see their eyes," said Batya Brykmon. "You can see, when you give them some information of how they can do it, they just brighten up. It's worth it. It's worth the meeting."
The vice president of El Salvador, Ana Vilma Albanez de Escobar, says the summit encourages global networking of women.
"We have come here to see the future, to be positive, and to act together in solidarity for helping other women in other countries to develop," she said.
Mexican President Vicente Fox, whose administration created a National Institute for Women, inaugurated the summit.
He told the delegates that, what he called "machismo" curbs advancement, and women must, "say stop. It's over."
The summit concludes Saturday.