The finance industry must tackle gender imbalance

THE eruption of sexual abuse allegations in Hollywood and exposure of misconduct in Westminster highlight the need for greater female presence in sectors that men have traditionally dominated. Improving gender balance in business is one way to curb misogynistic practices, and can enhance decision-making by diversifying perspectives.

The Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum's Gender Balance Index (GBI) draws attention to the absence of women in senior roles in central banks and, beginning next year, public pension funds and sovereign funds. Based on this year's report, only 12 have female governors. When considering deputy governors as well, just 47 have a female presence in the top positions. The numbers match those in business: only seven FTSE 100 companies and 28 S&P 500 companies are headed by women. Among the latter, just 26.5 per cent of senior executives are female.

When scores for central banks in the GBI are aggregated, the global figure for gender balance is 30.6 per cent (a score of 100 per cent means that an institution has a perfectly balanced leadership team). However, scores are weighted by GDP and thus helped to a great extent by Janet Yellen's chairmanship of the US Federal Reserve. Next year's score will fall significantly when Ms Yellen cedes the role to Jerome Powell.