Over the past two decades, gender equality has emerged as a significant governance issue, emphasising broader pressures to improve legitimacy, trust and decision-making quality. As public institutions, central banks are expected to reflect the societies they serve. Diversity of experience reduces the potential for groupthink and helps institutions to be better equipped to respond to increasing complexity, uncertainties and volatility that threaten financial stability.
Nevertheless, despite progress, central banks remain generally male-dominated, particularly in senior and more relevant roles. This is also true throughout the pipeline, with persistent vertical and occupational segregation causing current-pay and future-pension gaps due to professional and hierarchical differences.
In March 2026, the European Central Bank launched its Gender Diversity Report (2013-25), which examines the state of gender policies inside the bank. While many institutions have implemented gender equality policies, including targets to accelerate change, the best practices of three institutions in particular – the ECB, Bank of England and Sveriges Riksbank – can be used to form a ‘European approach’.
Sustainable outcomes
Overall, the evidence suggests that sustainable gender equality requires a combination of targets for career progression, organisational culture change and a supportive mindset. The results show that, when in place, targets matter and work. Those for recruitment are very often met, those for top leadership are partially achieved with the most critical area at mid-senior professional and management level highlighting the persistence of internal structural barriers.
While significant progress has been made in increasing female representation, challenges and uneven results remain. Targets contribute to more equitable outcomes, including in salaries, but they reach their full potential when integrated into a broader strategy that – addressing bias, dysfunctionalities and occupational segregation – constantly supports inclusive career progression at every step.
Introducing change at the top level is important as a few more positions held by women, sometimes recruited externally, will allow targets to be achieved. However, the real challenge to avoid superficial gender equality compliance, especially with an ageing workforce, is to foster women’s progression at every career or salary level, considering carefully the time factor, namely the time-to-position achieved ratio of women compared to men, and promoting accountability disclosing annually meaningful diachronic data on gender equality progress.
European Central Bank
The ECB began the observed period in 2013 with very low female representation in senior roles, estimated at around 15% to 18%. In response, it implemented a formal Gender Diversity Strategy (2013-19), which later expanded into a 2020-26 framework that has introduced recruitment targets and career progression with monitored results.
By 2025, the outcomes show that women account for at least 33% of positions in every band. They reached 39.4% of senior management roles, nearly meeting the target of 40%, representing – with an increase of 8.8% – the most significant progress from 2019. Women accounted for 52% of positions compared with the target of 51% at analyst level and they represent around 50% of the heads of directorates general.
However, the targets have not yet been met at the ECB’s expert level, where women account for 44.4% compared with the target of 47%. The biggest gap was found at team-leader level, with a presence of 36.2% against the target of 42% and for all management positions, with 33.7% of women compared with the target of 36%.
The progress in gender diversity is reported annually in the ECB’s Annual Report and Banking Supervision Annual Report. These publications have a strong focus on transparency and accountability to catalyse organisational change and feature a range of collateral initiatives to raise awareness and support the measures.
Despite significant improvements, and considering that the executive board (six members: two female and four male) is appointed by the European Council and the composition of General Council, Governing Council and Supervisory Board (50% women and 50% men for ECB members) depends on the national representatives, the ECB continues to face a ‘leaky pipeline’.
Women remain underrepresented in mid-level professional and management roles, suggesting that further change and mobility are needed to fully address informal barriers such as promotion bias and occupational segregation.
Bank of England
The Bank of England also began the observed period with low female representation in senior roles (around 17%). However, from 2014, the Bank put in place gender and ethnicity targets, which were updated following consultation with internal networks in 2020 and in 2025, with results expected by February 2028.
By February 2025, women made up 38% of senior managers against a target of 40% to 44% by 2028 and 40% of roles just below senior management with a target of 43% by 2028. The share of female executive directors and directors appointed was 41% by February 2024, reaching 47% by April 2026 with a minimum target of parity in 2028. Progress is monitored and a report is published annually.
An historic milestone was reached for the Monetary Policy Committee in March 2025, where for the first time it has held a female majority. Out of nine members, five are female, comprising three external members and two deputy governors. Among the governors, two out of four deputies are female.
These results indicate meaningful progress at the top of the organisation. However, the Bank of England’s progress, like the ECB’s, is uneven. Mid-level representation remains weaker, with a lower target than for the top level and a persistent gender pay gap continues to be reported in annual disclosures. This suggests that a more leadership driven approach may improve representation at senior levels without fully transforming structural inequalities across an organisation.
Sveriges Riksbank
The Swedish central bank represents a different model shaped by Sweden’s broader gender-equal labour market. Unlike the ECB and Bank of England, Sveriges Riksbank is a small organisation of 500 people (against over 5,000 of the other two) that did not require major corrective intervention in the last years.
By the mid-2020s, Sveriges Riksbank achieved near gender parity across both workforce and leadership levels, relying less on formal targets and more on national rules and a cultural mindset embedded in Swedish society.
At management level, six out of nine departments are currently led by women. Of the five members of the bank’s executive board, two deputy governors – including the institution’s first – are female. The chair of the General Council is a man, while three out of its 11 members are female.
However, this model has some limitations. The lack of published targets reduces the easy access to data and results seem to be context-dependent, potentially restricting transferability to other institutional environments with weaker general equality policies or different attitudes.
Mariarita Circi, former Fellow at Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and PhD holder at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are the author’s own and do not involve or reflect the opinion of her past or present employer, universities or organisations
This article featured in OMFIF’s Gender Balance Index 2026.
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