Less than half of workers employed in advanced economy central banks are women, but on average only a third of women are economists or managers, according to an IMF Survey. Instead, women occupy 80 percent of administrative and HR roles, which shows that occupational segregation is quite pervasive.
This is the first survey of its kind that we know of, with studies having so far focused on academia and the private and public sectors more broadly. Central banks can set high gender standards for other economic institutions and this work sheds light on how monetary authorities can improve their own performance.
National central banks in the Group of Seven (G7) participated, as well as the European Central Bank. The topics covered include diversity policies, employment practices, earnings, leave and work arrangements, and childcare and other benefits.
Using data from the survey, we designed a new index, the Human Resources Gender Index (HRGI), which uses a scoring from 0 to 1, with 1 being maximum equality. As our latest Chart of the Week shows, policies to eliminate gender gaps have been only partially successful. The ranges and wide variation in scores suggest that participating central banks could do more to reduce the gender gap.
