Gender inequality of opportunity: Impact of the Female Leadership Program on the occupation of management positions

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the probability of women in a financial institution attaining managerial positions and to assess the impact of the Women’s Leadership Program on managerial occupancy. To this end, a dataset provided by the institution was utilized, containing socioeconomic information on employees for the years 2017 and 2022. Based on this data, the Logit and Difference-in-Differences (Diff-in-Diff) econometric models were estimated. In the first model, for the years 2017 and 2022, it was estimated that, out of a total of 45,774 women employed at the institution in 2017, approximately 6,088 women were unable to attain managerial positions due to gender inequalities. By 2022, this number had decreased to 5,675, representing an approximate 7% reduction in this disparity. The results from the Diff-in-Diff model indicate that the program had a positive impact, increasing the participation of women managers who took part in the program by 8.5 percentage points. In absolute terms, the impact estimates that the program enabled nine additional women, out of the 122 participants, to attain managerial positions.