On Latin America and the Caribbean there are six women in charge of central banks. Six of 46 monetary institutions of the countries of the region.
Just this year, the Governor of the Bank of Mexico, Victoria Rodriguez Ceja and the president of the Central Bank of Chile, Rosanna CostaCostatook office in the context of inflation above their targets and on the eve of the impact it is already having on the markets, the expectation of what will be the first increase in rates by the United States Federal Reserve.
The officials joined the group of four who already had experience in directing monetary policy in a pandemic: Lizbeth Ann Henriquezwhich assumed the direction of the Board of Directors of the National Bank of Panama in 2019 and Martha Sabina WilsonMinister President of the Central Bank of Cubawho took the responsibility from that same year.
Then there are the central bankers whose credentials also treasure the reaction to the Great Recession of 2009 and the frozen market after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers: Jeanette Semellerpresident of the Central Bank of Aruba since 2008; as well as Cindy Scotlandwho is Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of the Cayman Islands since 2000.
According to information collected by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), the central banks of the region did not strengthen gender diversity in management positions during 2021.
A female central banker remains a rarity in a field dominated by men”, highlighted the experts of the aforementioned Forum in the Gender Balance Index of the year 2021.
This is shown by the fact that last year, among the 31 central bankers and governors hired in the world, only one was a woman, the president of the Vietnamese monetary institute, Nguyen Thi Hong.
The report does not include the appointment of Governor Rodríguez Ceja, which was made in December.
Nursing rooms and nurseries
The arrival of the president Rosanna Costa to the Central Bank of Chile compensated for the output Veronica Artola Jarrinwho until last year was General Manager of the Central Bank of Ecuador. A term in office without Costa’s input would have reduced the number of female central bankers in the region.
The information of the Global Gender Index 2021 shows that there are 19 women in the world at the head of a central bank, against 167 directed by men.
In the 2021 report, in the chapter dedicated to central banking, they asked how the pandemic changed the exercise of their functions.
only the Bank of Mexico and the central bank of ugandaresponded that they have a lactation room and a third of the respondents have a nursery and childcare service.
Female leadership in world monetary policy will also grow this year, when the United States Senate approves the nomination of Lael Brainard as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve (fed).
This will be the second time that the world’s largest central bank has had a woman as vice president. Before Brainard, the same Janet Yellen she held the position before also being the first central banker of that country.
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