FinEquity Knowledge Guide: Gender Diversity and Leadership Development in Financial Services

This guide explains the benefits of targeting women entrepreneurs and women-led businesses and help providers of financial and business development services to MSMEs to be more gender-inclusive in their work. The guide presents the advantages of adopting a gender lens to target women entrepreneurs and women-led businesses and to tailor products and service delivery to them. The Why gender inclusion is important (section 3) is helpful for convincing senior management or decision-makers at your organization to adopt a gender lens. 

In this report, AFI shares the progress their members, central banks and financial regulatory institutions, have made increasing institutional gender diversity and support for women's leadership in the last five years.  This follows their 2018 report, which detailed an assessment of selected members’ institutional gender diversity, including practices, barriers, gaps, progress, and recommendations for gender mainstreaming to achieve institutional gender parity. 

This case study shares insights from the participants of Women’s World Banking’s Leadership and Development programs. It highlights the stories of women leaders who have navigated obstacles and achieved success to arrive where they are today in their professional journeys. The study aims to inspire and motivate other aspiring women leaders to work on advancing women’s financial inclusion.

This report explores the challenges to and opportunities for women’s leadership within banks and fintech institutions. It seeks to uncover perspectives on the gender gap reality among men and women professionals in the banking and fintech sectors in Indonesia. This research follows similar work conducted in Nigeria, “Advancing Women as Leaders in Nigeria’s Finance Industry.”  Both reports provide recommendations and evidence for policy makers and FSPs to address gender equality challenges. 

This podcast focuses on the Toronto Centre’s first leadership program for Women Financial Supervisors and Regulators in Sub-Saharan Africa. The speakers discuss the importance of providing women with the tools and strategies needed to develop and strengthen their key behavioral competencies and leadership skills.  

This blog post, based on a panel discussion during the 2021 Financial Inclusion Global Initiative (FIGI) Symposium, highlights the current gender gap in fintech leadership, factors driving this gap and reasons for why it is important to address the gap as a part of advancing women’s financial inclusion. It includes examples of current efforts by different stakeholders to close this gap in the financial services sector as well as links to other resources on this topic.  

This online tool, made up of 43 questions, is designed to help FSPs build strong, gender-diverse teams and position themselves to serve the women’s market. Using a brief confidential questionnaire (see the next resource for a specific separate questionnaire for FinTechs), the methodology allows all types of FSPs to assess their strategic approach to gender equality, identify gaps and opportunities for improvement, learn about best practices on gender equality globally, set concrete goals and targets, and measure progress over time. FSPs who take the survey receive a personalized report with concrete suggestions and areas for improvement.  

This online tool for Fintech companies can be used to measure their gender diversity rankings and inclusion practices against other FinTechs and identify areas for improvement. The six-minute survey results in a high-level report with initial recommendations for making your institution more gender diverse and inclusive. 

This toolkit includes an institutional gender self-assessment tool (GSAT) and a standardized process with facilitator guides to support FSPs in reviewing and evaluating their existing gender approach. This includes identifying the linkages that exist among a) their business goals and profit; b) effectively serving the women’s market and; c) promoting women’s  workforce participation and leadership. The toolkit aims to enhance FSPs’ institutional policies, practices and performance towards increasing targeted outreach to women clients through gender-sensitive products and services; and promoting workforce gender diversity in management and leadership.  

This toolbox aims to address the gender gaps that exist within companies. It includes a self-assessment to evaluate the current approach to gender and inclusion within an organization and provides guidance on how to support women in leadership, promote equality in the workplace, examine impact of products and services on the lives of women and girls and equality in the value chain and advocacy practices. This toolbox is suitable for all businesses interested in taking advantage of the potential of gender equality to improve their competitiveness, their market value and their work environment, as well as becoming key actors to achieve an equal and inclusive society 

This tool helps companies identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities to improve their performance on gender equality across the workplace, marketplace, and community. The WEPs Tool assesses companies’ commitment to a gender equality strategy, equal pay, recruitment, supporting parents and caregivers, women’s health, inclusive sourcing, and advocacy for gender equality in communities where it operates.

This suite of 23 tools is intended to help companies assess and establish their baseline on gender diversity and inclusion, increase gender equity in recruitment, retention, and promotion, and monitor, evaluate, and sustain these gains in gender diversity in the workplace. Companies can pick and choose tools based on organizational needs and priorities. Some of the featured tools include ones to conduct a Pay Gap survey to complement a Gender Audit and shed light on real and perceived imbalances, guidance to update HR policies to make existing and new policies more gender inclusive, and a Board Gender Assessment to identify gender equity and inclusiveness challenges on the Board. 

This toolkit provides guidance to financial regulators, policymakers, and financial service providers in developing an enabling ecosystem that supports institutional diversity and women’s leadership. It helps them define current practices, identify existing gaps and find opportunities for progress in institutional gender diversity, and provides examples of institutions making positive progress in this area. 

This report details strategies rooted in behavioral insights that employers such as FSPs can implement and test in their workplaces to create more equitable work environments for all. The strategies proposed here are based on research about how the perpetuation of ideal worker norms is at the root of the gender pay gap—and that behavioral design can help uproot them for good by giving employers a useful set of tools to redesign work and workplaces. Laws and policies exist to address discriminatory pay practices—including by requiring equal pay for equal work, removing barriers to bringing legal claims, and promoting transparency and reporting on the pay gap.  

Access to childcare often increases mothers’ employment activities by freeing up their time and allows mothers to be more productive in their businesses, on average. This review of nine randomized evaluations of childcare interventions from eight low- and middle-income countries found that access to childcare increased women’s labor force participation in cases where there were no additional barriers to women’s employment outside the home (e.g., restrictive gender norms or lack of employment opportunities).

This report explores the link between financial returns and gender diversity; the lack of women in the industry; and steps needed to achieve gender balance. Women are underrepresented in leadership roles in both private equity and venture capital firms and portfolio companies. At the time of the research, only 15% of firms’ and 20% of portfolio companies’ leadership teams were gender-balanced; however, gender balance was found to be correlated with greater performance. Through over 50 interviews and 500 survey responses, the report outlines over 25 steps investors can take to move toward gender balance in both investment teams and portfolio companies. These initiatives are supported by 12 case studies of leading private equity and venture capital organizations that showcase best practices.  

Women’s World Banking offers a range of leadership programs to help institutions create inclusive workplaces to attract and retain diverse talent and develop innovative financial products and services that meet the needs of low-income women. This includes programs for regulators, women leaders and senior FSP management using a broad range of learning approaches – in-house training, executive coaching, peer exchanges – to guide participants to more effectively lead through complexity and change with the goal of advancing women’s financial inclusion. Program durations vary between 5 to 12 weeks.  

Digital Frontiers Institute offers a standalone course designed for female or male senior-level  leaders in the private, public, development or NGO sector who have the motivation and influence to champion gender equality in their organization. Aimed at board members, directors, executives, partners, presidents, the five-part course is a combination of self-directed video lessons and readings and facilitated group conversations and active reflection, allowing participants to gain new insights and approaches  to undertake gender equality change projects and address inequalities at the systems level. 

Through a customized best practices framework, demand-driven expert coaching, and a Gender Equity Executive Leadership Program, in partnership with Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, Engendering Industries builds the capacity of leaders to identify critical gender equality gaps and implement interventions that directly increase opportunities for women within the company and strengthen the overall operations of the organization. The approach of the Engendering Industries program focuses specifically on improving gender equity throughout the employee life cycle. From attraction and talent outreach to separation and retirement, there are numerous opportunities to promote gender equality within organizations.