Female central bankers face significant gender bias, finds research from two PLS faculty

March 25, 2025 - Karessa Weir

Using a novel experiment to access gender bias, Drs. Cristina Bodea and Andrew Kerner found that female central bankers face significant gender bias.  

“Messaging associated with women central bankers was less able to influence men’s optimism about the economic future or their trust in the Federal Reserve,” they found. “Male respondents also displayed a disproportionate inability to recognize female central bankers’ gender.” 

Because the work of a central banker relies primarily on trust, many, including former Chair Alan Greenspan, leverage both their personal and institutional reputations to “stave off inflation and prevent financial panic.” 

But previous research hasn’t measured the impact of gender because women have made up less than 10 percent of central bank board seats as recently as 2000. 

In “Expectations, Gender Bias, and Federal Reserve Talk: Do Americans Trust Women as Central Bankers?” (Journal of Politics) Bodea and Kerner surveyed thousands of Americans who read identical information vignettes about the American economy. The messages, based on real-life statements of male and female central bankers, included assurances that the Federal Reserve had the tools and resolve to fix the increasing inflation.  

The messages were delivered by central bankers both male and female and presented with and without their professional credentials. Respondents were asked to report their beliefs about the economy and their confidence in the Federal Reserve.  

“The resulting data show a clear and substantial bias towards central bankers who are men, particularly among respondents who are men,” they wrote. “This bias comes in a variety of forms, the most elemental of which is that men were disproportionately unable to recognize women central banker’s gender.”  

Men were more optimistic about the future and more trusting of the Federal Reserve when the central banker was male. “When the Federal Reserve asked Americans to trust them to fight the highest inflation in four decades, American men were more likely to extend that trust to other men in positions of power,” they wrote.  

This falls in line with previous research that showed the general public associate men with “competence, with capable leadership, and with economics.” Meanwhile, women are more associated with compassion. 

Bodea and Kerner suggest that  “gender bias remains in expectations related to monetary policy and appears related to stereotypes related to traits and competencies about women in this area. Our data cannot speak to trends, but establish that these biases existed at a consequential moment and several decades beyond when women began achieving more significant representation levels,” they wrote.  

Bodea is Professor of Comparative Politics at MSU Political Science since 2006. She worked as an Economist at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany. Kerner is an Associate Professor of International Relations at MSU Political Science who focuses on the politics of corporate governance and securities law reform.   

The work was supported by the Women's Leadership Institute at MSU with the Tomlanovich-Dimond Equity Fund in 2021.