Executive Directors underscore the importance of promoting gender diversity at the IMF’s Executive Board and the Offices of Executive Directors (OEDs). The Executive Board recognizes that a diversity of views contributes to stronger decisionmaking, and is committed to ongoing efforts to improve the gender profile of the Board and Offices of the Executive Directors. The Fund’s membership has also indicated that it places importance on this issue; the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) has consistently drawn attention in its communiqués to the importance of enhancing the gender diversity of the Executive Board.

The Report reflects discussion among Executive Directors on June 7, 2016 and responds to the April 16, 2016 Communique of the Thirty-Third Meeting of the IMFC which stated that “We reiterate the importance of maintaining the high quality and improving the regional, gender, and education diversity of the IMF’s staff, and of promoting gender diversity in the Executive Board.”

Greater gender diversity of the IMF’s Executive Board continues to be important to strengthen decision-making at the highest levels of the institution by bringing together different perspectives. Increasing the number of women Executive Directors and Alternate Executive Directors sends important signals about the high value the membership and the IMF place on improving diversity and to generate better outcomes. Despite the IMFC’s calls for increased gender diversity of the Executive Board, the number of women holding the position of Executive Director and Alternate Executive Director on the Executive Board has not substantially improved over time.1 It is a great concern that the proportion of women on the Executive Board has declined in recent years, as shown in the attached updated Fact Sheet.

While there are ample reasons for discussing gender diversity in good times, there is an even greater need in bad times. At the time of this report, the economic and social consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the negative spillovers and higher inflation following Russia’s war in Ukraine, have exacerbated pre-existing gender gaps, disproportionately affecting women’s jobs, incomes, and security. The stall in progress towards gender parity has resulted in a call for further action to reduce gender inequality, as seen in the Strategy for Mainstreaming Gender at the Fund. The integration of gender in the Fund’s core activities, when macro-critical, recognizes the fact that reducing gender disparities results in higher economic growth, greater economic stability and resilience, and lower income inequality.

The benefits of gender diversity are well known – it increases effectiveness and efficiency and strengthens decision-making. Yet, the IMF Executive Board continues to fall short of reaching gender balance, with women constituting a small minority of the Executive Directors and Alternate Executive Directors. There is a clear need for change. The IMFC has called on the membership to take action, including by introducing voluntary medium-term objectives to raise the number of women holding leadership positions at the Board. This report summarizes the Executive Board’s recommendations for these targets and lays out proposals for concerted actions that can be taken by individual countries and constituencies

The lack of women on boards has galvanised much public and policy interest, which has led to many countries introducing quotas for women on boards, or to concerted voluntary action. However the way that directors are appointed remains opaque and prone to the influence of gender. Using a social constructionist understanding of gender and a discourse analysis, Gender and Corporate Boards explores the board appointment process through the experiences of women and men seeking non-executive board roles. The book is unique in that it traces board-ready candidates, who have been vetted by an executive search firm, over an 18-month period. By taking a longitudinal and prospective view rather than retrospective and snapshot, it provides deep analysis of how the board appointment process is gendered. This volume privileges the voices of those who are seeking board roles to show how they make sense of an unpredictable and complex process. Gender and Corporate Boards first analyses how aspirant board candidates see themselves in relation to the market, through exploring their perceptions of the ideal board member and how they position themselves towards this ideal. Second, the book shows how candidates must leverage their networks to get board appointments, and that the process is gendered: women and men receive different benefits from their networks. Third, the book explores how the participants make sense of success and failure and how their justifications are also gendered. The book will be of interest to those seeking to understand dynamics of gender on boards as well as those interested in gender and leadership more broadly.

During the past financial year, the IMF’s 189 member countries faced a number of pressing challenges. IMF work on these challenges - slower trade, declining productivity, gender inequality, inclusive growth, and debt management - is a central focus of this 2017 Annual Report.

This edited collection provides a structured and in-depth analysis of the current use of multiple approaches beyond quotas for resolving the pressing issue of gender inequality, and the lack of female representation on corporate boards. Filling the gap in existing literature on this topic, the two volumes of Gender Diversity in the Boardroom offers systematic overviews of current debates surrounding the optimisation of gender diversity, and the suggested pathways for progress. Focusing on sixteen European countries, the skilled contributors explore the current situation in relation to women on boards debates and approaches taken. They include detailed reflections from critical stakeholders, such as politicians, practitioners and policy-makers. Volume 2 focuses on eight European countries having multiple approaches beyond quotas and is a promising and highly valuable resource for academics, practitioners, policy makers and anyone interested in gender diversity because it examines and critiques the current corporate governance system and national strategies for increasing the share of women not only on boards, but within companies beyond the boardroom.

This edited collection provides a structured and in-depth analysis of the current use of quota strategies for resolving the pressing issue of gender inequality, and the lack of female representation on corporate boards. Filling the gap in existing literature on this topic, the two volumes of Gender Diversity in the Boardroom offers systematic overviews of current debates surrounding the optimisation of gender diversity, and the suggested pathways for progress. Focusing on sixteen European countries, the skilled contributors explore the current situation in relation to women on boards debates and approaches taken. They include detailed reflections from critical stakeholders, such as politicians, practitioners and policy-makers. Volume 1 focuses on eight European countries having adopted quotas and is a promising and highly valuable resource for academics, practitioners, policy makers and anyone interested in gender diversity because it examines and critiques the current corporate governance system and national strategies for increasing the share of women not only on boards, but within companies beyond the boardroom.