Campaign of the Economic and monetary Affairs Committee to promote women in leading roles of Economic and Financial institutions. Statements by high-profile women who currently hold such positions on their experience and message, Irene TINAGLI, Chair of the ECON Committee, Mairead MCGUINNESS, European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union, Christine LAGARDE, President of the European Central Bank, Isabel SCHNABEL, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, Elke KÖNIG, Chair of the Single Resolution Board.

Brussels

statement

McGUINNESS, Mairead (EPP, IE)

Women in Parliaments (T)

International Women's Day (T)

gender balance (T)

LAGARDE, Christine (FR)

TINAGLI, Irene (S&D, IT)

Women on board in Economics and Finance - Gender equality in finance and economics - statements by leading women in EU institutions

Title:  Women on board in Economics and Finance - Gender equality in finance and economics - statements by leading women in EU institutions

SOUNDBITE (English), Irene TINAGLI (S&amp;D, IT), Chair of the EP Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, In parliament, we value women and in the Committee for Economic and Monetary Affairs, we would love to see more women in leading roles in economic and financial institutions. In the past year, we were proud to host the hearing of the first woman to become president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, and also Isabelle Schnabel, now a member of the executive board or Commissioner McGuinness, the first woman to be commissioner for Financial Services and Stability. Of course, this is not enough. We need more women in such leading roles. But to do that, we need everybody's support, European institutions, of course, but also national governments, central banks, companies, universities, local communities, because that's where women's careers start and where they can be pushed up to the leading roles. So please help us bring in women where they could and should be.

Illustration shots of Irena TINAGLI, Chairing an EP Committee of Economic and Monetary Affairs

SOUNDBITE (English), Christine LAGARDE, President of the European Central Bank, There are too few women in economics and there are too few women in central banking. At the table of the Governing Council of the ECB, they are 25 persons, only two of them are women, doesn't have to be that way. It can be different, but we need to respond to challenges. So I want to point you in the direction of three challenges. First, a challenge to women. Have confidence in yourself. Trust yourself and your female colleagues. Yes, you are. And you can be top notch professionals in economics. Don't let yourself be intimidated. You have what it takes. Second challenge to the parents, please contest the idea that a good economist has to be a boy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Christine LAGARDE, President of the European Central Bank, Those are cliche, those are biases, contest them. And my third challenge is to all of us, men and women alike in the professional world, in our family circles, we have to help each other. We have to support each other. And I encourage all of you men and women to actually support women in the fields of economics and central banking. We can all help. If we do, it will improve the excellence, the quality of the debate and certainly the diversity of views, which is critical for a good deliberating and decision making process. We are up to the challenges. Let's do it.

Illustration shots of the EP hearing of Christine Lagarde for the post of ECB President (04/09/2019)

SOUNDBITE (English), Mairead MCGUINNESS, Commissioner, Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union, I'm really pleased to be a member of the first gender balanced college of Commissioners and indeed the first woman to look after the portfolio of financial stability on capital markets. But it has occurred to me and to many of you that when you look at finance generally, you see pinstripe suits. Perhaps you don't see too many women. And I think that's something that we need to change. And it's not that women aren't educated in finance and economics, it's just that we don't see them at different layers and particularly at the higher levels in this sector. I'm very happy to support a move in that direction, and I believe we should and must get to a more gender balanced financial sector

Illustration shots of the EP hearing of Mairead MCGUINNESS, for the post of Commissioner-designate, Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union (02/10/2020)

SOUNDBITE (English), Elke K&#214;NIG, President of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, Good morning. My name is Elke K&ouml;nig. I am chair of the single resolution board in Brussels, and I've been asked to give you my view on how can we ensure that we get gender equality, that we get women encouraged to take up positions in finance, in economics. And being asked this question, I was a bit posing myself because I was actually asking myself, why do we still need to ask that question today?

SOUNDBITE (English), Elke K&#214;NIG, President of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, So what do we need to do? No doubt we want gender equality. We want diversity. Diverse teams have more creativity. Diverse teams are better to work with long term. But it also means for any woman that starts a career, go for it, try to find your way. We need to go forward. We need to encourage women. I'm personally trying whatever I can to do so, but we need also to be realistic. In the end, all that counts is qualification for a job. And I'm absolutely sure that there are as many qualified women as they are qualified men. So I stay optimistic. That's probably the only thing to do. And I really encourage all girls go for it. It's worth to make a career. It's worse to try to do whatever it takes to succeed.

Illustration shots of Elke K&Ouml;NIG, President of the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority during the Joint EC/ECB conference on "European Financial Integration and Stability" (27/04/2015)

SOUNDBITE (English), Isabelle SCHNABEL, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, Women are central, not just in central banks. Therefore, we make great efforts to promote gender equality. Ten years ago, we adopted a diversity action plan which helped us to increase the share of women at all levels. And key was to ensure that young women actually apply. But the share of women is still too low, especially in management positions. And this is why we announced a new enhanced gender strategy, which foresees that one half of our hires in our promotions are women. And we do much more, scholarships for talented women, leadership programs, mentoring, childcare and an overall inclusive culture. We know that our institution thrives on diversity. And gender equality is one very important aspect of it.

Illustration of EP ECON Hearing of Isabel SCHNABEL, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB (03/12/2019)