ECB Aims for Half of New Hires Under Lagarde’s Watch to be Women

(Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank is revamping gender targets to raise women’s presence at the monetary authority.

Its new objective is to fill “at least half of new and open positions with women on all levels,” the ECB said Thursday, with a strategy that covers the period until 2026 so as to fall within the mandate of President Christine Lagarde. The targets aim to raise the share of women at the bank to between 40% and 51% by that point.

“We want gender balance to be the norm now rather than a revolution to fight later,” Lagarde said.

The ECB will publish interim assessments in 2022 and 2024. Employees who do not wish to declare themselves as either female or male will not be included in the statistics.

An annual report released earlier this month showed the institution had missed its goal for the number of women occupying management positions by the end of last year, although it reached a target for senior managers. The central bank set those targets back in 2013 to try to shake off the impression that it’s run by men.

The new goals go beyond management positions to include several lower levels on the ECB’s salary scale. It said the targets are accompanied by other measures to support gender diversity. For instance, last year the ECB launched a scholarship for women studying economics.

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