WHILE progress towards the goal of gender equality and diversity in the global economy remains slow, the past year witnessed some historic highs. The Reserve Bank of Australia welcomed Michele Bullock as its first female governor, while Hafize Gaye Erkan became governor of the central bank of Turkey. Janet Truncale made history as the first woman appointed as the chief executive officer of a Big Four firm, poised to lead EY later this year.

However, there were also lows. The departures of Esther George and Alison Rose from leadership positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and NatWest, respectively, remind us that the journey towards gender equality is a complex one.

The Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum’s (OMFIF) Gender Balance Index 2023 (GBI 2023), which tracks the presence of women in senior leadership in the financial sector, found that it will take 140 years to achieve parity at the current rate of progress.