Celebrating International Women’s Day: How we’re advancing gender equality

Happy International Women’s Day (IWD)!

IWD is a day to honor the invaluable contributions of women past and present to our world.

Since the first IWD forty-five years ago, we have seen steady progress. Women have broken through countless barriers, and female representation across industries and sectors continues to improve.

But IWD is also an occasion to reflect on how much we have left to do. Throughout the world, women still face roadblocks and biases because of their gender. The theme of IWD 2022 tackles this head-on: “Break the Bias.”

At Citi, advancing gender equality is part of our inclusive culture. We strive for this within our organization and in the communities we serve. 

Here are a few ways we are taking action:

1. Highlighting female achievements

Showcasing female achievements is an opportunity to inspire future generations of female leaders.

Citi Private Bank serves a remarkable community of female progress-makers worldwide. Some of them generously allow us to share profiles of their ground-breaking entrepreneurship, family business reinvention and life-changing philanthropy. 

We draw inspiration from such achievements every day – and we are proud to tell these stories to the world.

2. Empowering women to go further

Female entrepreneurship is flourishing. In the decade to 2019, the global proportion of start-ups with at least one female founder doubled to 20%*. Partly as a result, women’s share of world wealth continues to grow rapidly.

Wealth management plays an important role in empowering female entrepreneurs. This includes structuring business ownership, connecting companies to funding and advice and helping to diversify their wealth.

Citi Private Bank recognizes that the financial industry has traditionally focused on men, overlooking subtle differences in priorities between genders. We have re-shaped our approach to female wealth creators, including specially created thought leadership, events and networking opportunities.

The latest Citi GPS report explores the evolving landscape for female entrepreneurship.

We also consider how women are changing the face of philanthropy.

3. Prioritizing diversity on our teams

Our community of clients is incredibly diverse, representing every gender, background, culture and walk of life. We believe they are best served by teams that mirror them.

More than half of Citi’s talent worldwide is female, as are half of our Board of Directors. In 2020, Jane Fraser became the first ever woman to lead a global bank. We were also the first in our industry to publish our pay equity numbers. We truly believe what gets measured gets done.

Within the Private Bank, we are privileged to have many exceptional female leaders and colleagues. This short film celebrates their tireless efforts on behalf of our clients.

Let’s drive progress together! 

While IWD is a day to celebrate women, its values of progress are universal. Breaking the bias and creating a fairer society requires each of us to play our part. Join us in celebrating IWD 2022 together!

Ida Liu, Global Head of Citi Private Bank

 *Statista and Citi Global Data Insights, as of Mar 2022.