Gender Diversity: The Glass Ceiling Remains Thick at European Banks

DBRS Morningstar has published a new commentary focusing on gender diversity at the board and executive level across 63 banks in Europe.

• Gender diversity continues to improve for European banking board of directors, however, women still remain significantly underrepresented in senior leadership positions at European Banks.

• On average in 2022, based on a sample of 63 banks in Europe, women represented 38% of board member seats whereas female representation was just 23% for senior executive roles (C-suite roles). The number of female CEOs within the banking sector is even smaller, with only five of the 63 banks being run by a female CEO in 2022.

• We believe national gender quotas that have mostly focused on representation in the board room, could be expanded to include senior leadership roles as well.

“Our analysis shows a positive correlation between higher gender diversity at the board level and executive level, suggesting that a higher share of women at the board level has a positive, although a rather slow, effect on the number of women in senior roles,” notes Charlotte Cervin, Senior Analyst, European Financial Institutions at DBRS Morningstar.