Why the World Needs More Female Central Bankers

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, perhaps the world’s most well-known female central banker since Janet Yellen led the Federal Reserve, spoke candidly earlier this year about being surrounded by men her entire career. Diversity would produce better results, she said.

The central banking world got two new female leaders in the past couple of months who probably share Lagarde’s views. While the appointments are noteworthy, the focus must lie on what they can achieve rather than on their gender.

Before the appointments of Hafize Gaye Erkan in Turkey and Michele Bullock in Australia, only 22 women were leading central banks out of a total of 186, according to the 2023 Gender Balance Index published by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) in April. That was just one more than when the GBI was first released in 2014.

Central banking, like the wider world of finance, has a long way to go to reach gender parity. With broader leadership, these institutions of global standing will be better placed to influence policy that can address inequality in the broader society and serve as bellwethers for diversity in the financial sector. By comparison, women hold 25% of senior-level positions (full professor or associate professor) and 37% of junior-level positions at some of the world’s top universities and business schools, according to a research study last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Different perspectives are important to challenge an evolving environment and provide more tools for success in a complex world, Margarita Delgado, deputy governor of Banco de España, said in a recent podcast. Central banks “must be a mirror for society” and “an example for the financial sector,” she said.