The European Central Bank, a men's world

Despite banks and companies know that there is a positive correlation between female leadership and good business development, the ECB Council is a men’s club. The only woman among its 23 members, Mrs. Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell from Austria, will leave its position next May and will be substituted by the Belgian Peter Praet which has been elected by unanimity after being rejected Mrs. Elena Kohutikova.

It is still very difficult for a woman to achieve decision-making positions in the financial world. We could count the female presidents of European banks on the fingers of one hand. In Spain, for example, there is no single woman at the top of a bank or a savings bank...

Women in the Private Sector

Despite some advances toward gender equality in the private sector, the gaps in the corporate sphere remain enormous.

Evidence suggests that corporate boards with more female members have greater participation of members in decision-making and better board governance but although women directors are now present on most boards of directors of large companies, their number remains low compared to men.

Some countries have implemented proactive policies to boost female participation at the board level of private companies, particularly in Scandinavia. Spain, for example, mandated a quota to raise the number of women on boards.

Women corporate leaders have a potential to influence the way employees live and work by promoting fairer management practices, a better balance between work and family life and fewer gender disparities in the workplace. However, neither women chief executives are common in the private sector.

The proportion of directors and chief executives who are women varies widely among countries even within the same region. Furthermore, the glass ceiling appears to be most impenetrable in the largest corporations, which are still essentially male domains. Of the 300 largest corporations on the world, only 13 had a female CEO in 2009: less than 3%. In 33 countries in Europe (EU-27 plus 6 others), the same pattern emerges of a very low proportion of women in the top position of the highest decision-making body in the largest companies, namely the chairman of the board. Only in 3 countries (Bulgaria, Slovakia and Norway) there were women at the helm of at least 10% of the country’s top companies as chairman of the board.

IN SUM, women are still severely underrepresented in the highest decision-making positions within the private sector and this situation is even more severe than in the government, judiciary and civil service.