A World Bank study of nearly 50,000 Commercial Bank of Ethiopia employees finds that women earn less and remain sharply underrepresented in leadership despite similar qualifications, performance and ambition. The findings point to unequal access to leadership opportunities, childcare pressures, limited work flexibility and mobility constraints, highlighting the need for more transparent promotions, flexible workplaces and stronger childcare support.
major World Bank study of Ethiopia’s financial sector has found that women continue to face significant disadvantages in pay, promotion and leadership even after securing jobs in a highly skilled and relatively well-paid industry. Researchers Ketki Sheth, Toni Weis and Saba Yifredew examined the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), combining six years of administrative records covering nearly 50,000 employees with large employee and manager surveys.
The findings are important for governments, development partners and private companies because they challenge a common assumption: that getting more women into skilled jobs automatically creates workplace equality. Women make up around 30 percent of CBE’s workforce but earn about 85 percent as much as men. They are around 80 percent less likely to hold supervisory roles and 68 percent less likely to occupy managerial positions. Women represent roughly 35 percent of employees below grade nine but only about 15 percent at grade 14 and above.
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