CFS/IBF Lecture: “Gender Gap in the Financial Industry”

The question of gender equality is increasingly preoccupying the still strongly traditional financial sector. In the joint lecture event of CFS and IBF, Dieter Ziegler and Claudia Rasper take a look at the historical and current development and thus provide impulses for the current discussion and future course settings.

From the perspective of an economic historian, Dieter Ziegler, holder of the Chair of Economic and Business History at the Ruhr University Bochum, takes a look at the career opportunities and advancement prospects of young women during the 1920s. These were considered the decade of the “new woman”, for whose growing self-confidence the greater economic independence thanks to improved professional opportunities is said to have played a role. How young women’s professional and life opportunities actually developed beyond the traditional role of housewife and mother is discussed using the example of one of the most sought-after professions open to women, that of bank clerk.

The second contribution is dedicated to the question of professional opportunities for women in the banking sector from a current perspective. Claudia Rasper, Partner, The Boston Consulting Group, and Head of the BCG network “WiFi: Women in Financial Institutions”, presents the study ‘Gender Diversity in the European Banking Industry’, which analyses women’s shares and fair compensation in the executive and supervisory boards of European banks. It presents the core findings of the study and highlights the main challenges and success factors for a more gender-equal banking world in the present.