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Western EuropeFebruary 15 2023

Moving the needle on gender diversity in Europe’s banks

Despite gains at the boardroom level, women are still largely absent from the executive level within European banks. So, what will move the needle? Anita Hawser investigates.
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Moving the needle on gender diversity in Europe’s banks“No one believes the playing field between men and women is level, and when you bring in other factors such as race, ethnicity and disability, it becomes even more biased.”

It is not easy being the CEO of a bank at the best of times, let alone if you are one of the few women to have attained such a lofty position. For the few women that actually get that far, the top job often comes with increased scrutiny, expectations and pressure to perform. These women are also expected to be ‘lighthouses’ or ‘beacons’, showing the path to the top for the women at lower levels who aspire to the role of CEO.

But these beacons are in short supply. According to the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum’s 2022 Gender Balance Index, while the proportion of female CEOs at commercial banks increased from 6% to 14%. This means that just 46 of the 335 institutions (central banks, commercial banks, public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds) it ranks are run by women.

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Anita Hawser is the Europe editor at The Banker. For the past 20 years, Anita has worked as a freelance journalist for a range of banking, finance and tech titles covering topics such as cybersecurity, financial crime, cryptocurrencies, payments, trade and supply chain finance. Before joining The Banker, Anita was Europe editor at Global Finance.
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