Women in Financial Services Exploring Progress towards Gender Equality

This book explores gender diversity in the financial system, focusing especially on regulations, disclosure standards, theories and literature on the relationship between women in atypical positions and bank performance, female representation in governance bodies of banks and insurance companies, the gender pay gap and the gender balance in Central Banks. The topics are examined highlighting the progress towards gender equality (SDG 5) and the room for improvement in financial services with implications for policymakers, regulators and researchers in both finance and gender studies.

1. Introduction.- 2. An overview of legal measures, voluntary rules, indexes, and certifications concerning gender diversity in the banking industry.- 3. Women and bank performance: theoretical background and literature review.- 4. Data on female representation in banks.- 5. The gender pay gap in the financial sector: Where do we stand?.- 6. Gender diversity in the insurance industry: Progress made and next steps.- 7. Women in the asset management sector.- 8. How central are women in Central Banks?.- 9. Gender diversity in banks and insurance companies: The state of art.- 10. A case of temporary (extended) “hard quotas”: Gender diversity in Italian banks.- 11. Proposing a framework for calculating an index on gender equality in financial firms.