ECB Hits Gender Goal for Top Managers But Falls Short on Rest

(Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank reached its goal for the number of women occupying senior management positions by the end of last year, though the institution missed its target for all managers.

The ECB’s annual report on Thursday showed 30.8% of senior managers were female, compared with an aim of 28%. The figure for all managers was 30.3%, falling short of the desired 35%.

The central bank set the targets back in 2013 to try to shake off the impression that it’s an institution run by men. It crossed another gender watershed in 2019 when Christine Lagarde became the first female president in its two-decade history.

While ECB managers are appointed internally, the president and other policy makers are put forward by governments, and politicians have mostly missed the opportunity to balance the sexes.

Of the 25 Governing Council members, just two are women -- Lagarde and Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel, who joined on Jan. 1. The rest of the board and every single one of the 19 national central bank governors is male.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.