The banking crisis of 2007/2008 had enormous consequences for society in terms of wealth destruction, rising unemployment and increase in levels of public debt. Among the several dysfunctions of the financial sector, there is still a clear lack of balance in the representation of public interest in the reform of the financial system so that it benefits society at large. In the finance world, the balanced gender diversity representation is far from being achieved. Despites few cases of women in the apical positions of financial institutions and financial regulatory authorities, women hold only 14% of board seats and 2% of CEO positions in the financial services despite making up 60% of its global workforce.
Debates about quotas, more transparent recruitment processes, unconscious bias, gender differences that play out in the workplace and how they will shape women’s career around family responsibilities, women’s lower level of financial literacy, etc. are still far to find a proper answer to identify the blocking factors that exclude women from leadership positions in the financial sector. For instance, measuring how women fare in recruitment is one thing, but getting them to the first stage of the recruitment process is part of the battle.
In the first day we’ll focus on the relations between gender and finance, exploring how the lack in the representation of different interests (specifically from a gender perspective) negatively affects the performance of the financial sector as well as its impact on broader societal issues (e.g. human rights, environment, inequalities, democracy, etc.) and, eventually, could lead to financial instability and financial crisis. With Professor Gary Dymski we will explore the relations among race/gender and subprime crisis.
Professor Gary Dymski (University of Leeds)
Race, Gender, Power, and the US Subprime Mortgage and Foreclosure Crisis: A Meso Analysis
Francesca Bertolino, London School of Economics and Political Science
Diverging gender equality trajectories in Italy and Spain meet austerity: the end of progressive policy-making?
Naomi Friedman-Sokuler, Ben Gurion University in the Negev
Introducing Intersectionality: An Inverse Relation Between Gender Gaps in High School and Gender Equality in Society
Liudmila Galiullina, Maastricht University
Grading effects in education