Table Of ContentPALGRAVE MACMILLAN STUDIES IN
BANKING AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
SERIES EDITOR: PHILIP MOLYNEUX
Women in
Financial Services
Exploring Progress towards Gender Equality
Giuliana Birindelli
Antonia Patrizia Iannuzzi
Foreword by
Alessandra Perrazzelli
Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Banking and Financial
Institutions
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Giuliana Birindelli Antonia Patrizia Iannuzzi
Women in Financial
Services
Exploring Progress towards Gender Equality
Foreword by Alessandra Perrazzelli
Giuliana Birindelli Antonia Patrizia Iannuzzi
Department of Management Department of Economics,
and Business Administration Management and Business Law
“G. d’Annunzio” University “Aldo Moro” University of Bari
of Chieti-Pescara Bari, Italy
Pescara, Italy
ISSN 2523-336X ISSN 2523-3378 (electronic)
Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Banking and Financial Institutions
ISBN 978-3-030-93470-5 ISBN 978-3-030-93471-2 (eBook)
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To the Other Half of the Sky
Foreword
Women’s empowerment has the capacity to become today a relevant
factorintherecoveryprocess.Agreaterfemaleparticipationinthelabour
market is, and should be recognised to be, a key driver for growth, one
thatwouldhelptoachievethefullpotentialofoureconomies.Moreover,
as widely underlined by the economic literature, women bring unique
skills and perspectives to the workplace, with different attitudes to risk
and collaboration.
Gender equality should be pursued focusing on policies aimed at
enhancing women’s talents and skills, defining and defending women’s
rights, supporting their access to better quality jobs, and increasing
women’s representation in leadership positions. These actions should
interest all sectors, with special attention to activities such as financial
services, where they can also lead to significant improvements in risk
management.
The growth of services, the financial sector included, is a long-term
trend, which accelerated over the last decade. This trend, together with
theimprovementsinwomen’seducationallevels,thechangesinthestruc-
ture of family arrangements, and the gradual reshaping of gender roles,
has positively affected women’s job opportunities. In the last 25 years or
so, the female employment rate increased in the euro area from less than
50 to about 65%, a result in line with other advanced economies but at a
level that is still much below that of men. Furthermore, women’s remu-
neration is often below that of men in the same position and their labour
vii
viii FOREWORD
market participation is generally dampened—quantitatively and qualita-
tively—by several structural and long-term factors, which are difficult
to eradicate in the short term. Especially in financial service activities,
women’s participation is lagging behind: much is needed to raise it and
improve on the quality of jobs.
To break the glass ceiling, or better to say the double glass ceiling
clearly defined in Chapter 4 of this book, policy must act on both the
supply and demand of women’s labour, supporting their efforts to reach
higherqualityjobs.Thismayalsotriggeranincreaseinlaboursupplyand
in productivity. Indeed, the most recent experience is teaching us that
policies that operate on labour demand are relatively inexpensive and are
effective in achieving higher equality of opportunities and in promoting
diversity, even if these measures alone do not suffice to foster diversity
and inclusion.
Focusing on financial services, corporate management bodies can
benefit from an appropriately diverse composition—not only in terms of
gender, but also in terms of geographical origin, age, educational back-
ground, and professional expertise. It helps to include varied views in
financial institutions, to support effective challenges, and to reduce the
risk of groupthink. The diversity has relevant beneficial effects on the
sound and prudent management of intermediaries, improving decision-
making processes and ensuring an effective corporate governance.
Financial authorities, at the national and at the international level,
should continue to devote greater attention to diversity, with respect to
both their own organisation and that of supervised entities. In this book,
the results of several analyses are reviewed and the adoption of different
policy measures is assessed in terms of both their actual impact and the
opportunities they help to open.
In line with other financial authorities, the Bank of Italy has long
beensupportingdiversityinsideandoutside,applyingagradualapproach
and moving towards more stringent measures only when softer measures
turned out to be inadequate in overcoming an enduring market failure.
Internally, targets of female representation in top positions have been
combined with other initiatives, such as training and mentoring, in the
attempt to achieve better work-life balances. In the Eurosystem, several
approaches are being adopted; it is worth mentioning the most recent
announcement by the European Central Bank of a new strategy for the
2020–2026 period, which aims at further raising the share of women
at various salary levels. In the Bank of Italy, much research has been
FOREWORD ix
conductedongenderissuestoidentifybestpractices,mechanisms,recom-
mendations,andpoliciestosupportwiderandbetterfemaleemployment.
Several initiatives have also been taken in the field of financial education,
focusing on how to improve the financial inclusion of women.
Relating to supervised entities, in 2015, a Bank of Italy recommenda-
tion has been issued with the objective of raising the presence of women
in banks’ boards. As it became clear that the improvements have been
less than adequate, a more stringent measure was adopted last July. A
binding, though feasible, gender target has been set for top managerial
positions and bodies in all banks, listed and not listed, in order for them
tobenefitfromdiversitycompositionintheircorporategovernance.Some
compulsorymeasures,leveragingontop-downapproach,canalsoprompt
bottom-up process. The data evidence suggests that affirmative policies
may induce an increase in the diversity of boards along dimensions other
than the share of women in top executive positions. These are the cases
of geographical origin, age, and skills.
Thedebateonthenecessitytoensureadequategenderdiversityintop
positions has strengthened over recent years, but there is still a long way
to go to close the gap. In the financial sector, in the private entities as
well as in the supervisory authorities and central banks, women at top
managementlevelsareratherfew,asshownbydatareportedinthechap-
ters of this book. The pandemic crisis highlighted the scale of existing
disparities and inequalities, further underscoring the need for progress in
gender equality. This year, women’s empowerment is a key priority for
the G20 as Diversity and Inclusion is for Central banks within the G7
Finance Track. A strategy for gender equality has also been adopted by
the European Commission.
In the ongoing pandemic, the increase in the burden of family care
might force women out of the labour market, and a she-cession might
emerge. This crisis can and should be turned into an opportunity. We
experienced that new forms of work are possible: flexible and digital
working arrangements may favour female labour market participation
through a better balancing of work and family care responsibilities. In
the meantime, the possibility of spending part of the week working from
home, even if it may allow women to better balance their time and
duties, cannot substitute for proper childcare arrangements. They remain
fundamental to ensure productivity and not limiting career opportunities
in the longer run. Flexible work arrangements must not give rise to a
x FOREWORD
gender segregation trap, but should represent a way to increase female
participation.
Women’s empowerment is not just a matter of growth. The active
participation in the labour market, the advancement of one’s own poten-
tial,theacquisitionofskills,andtheaccesstoeconomicindependenceare
all essential requirements for the enhancement of diversity and inclusion.
The discussion among institutions is fundamental, as the law is not
enough to trigger a radical change of cultural pace. Therefore, the
achievement of gender equality requires public and private interventions
capable of addressing the multiple dimensions that still hinder qualita-
tively and quantitatively higher female participation in the labour market,
especiallyinspecificsectorsasthefinancialone.Thethoroughknowledge,
the extensive analysis, and the development of tools are core for a full
awareness of the gender gap, not limited to the establishment of quotas.
This book offers a relevant step forward in this direction considering in
depth the case of the financial sector.
Alessandra Perrazzelli
Deputy Governor
of the Bank of Italy
Rome, Italy
