In a 2023 working paper, we documented how women remained quite underrepresented in senior leadership roles across the international financial institutions (IFIs), despite decades of stated commitments to gender equality. This note revisits and updates that analysis using newly compiled data through 2025, drawing on expanded and revised leadership rosters across major multilateral development banks and international financial institutions. The updated figures show that while women’s representation has improved in some institutions—largely the regional banks—progress remains uneven and fragile, with persistent gaps at the very top of global economic decision-making—and strikingly, some evidence of backsliding at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Measuring who leads

Our analysis focuses on senior leadership, defined as the most influential positions shaping strategy and resource allocation: presidents, managing directors, vice presidents, and equivalent roles. Over the course of November and December 2025, we gathered publicly available information from industry reports, databases, and the IFIs’ websites, relying on leadership pages, senior employee profiles, and published organizational flow charts. We requested data directly from the IFIs as well and incorporated what was shared with us. We then combined this information with the data gathered as part of our original working paper, using our best judgement when aligning specific managerial levels.

Read more at: https://www.cgdev.org/publication/still-missing-top-women-and-senior-leadership-international-financial-institutions