gender equality has many facets, and i have touched upon several. generally speaking, there are three things which, for me, are inseparably linked to this issue : first, equality doesn ’ t only mean rights. for every right there is an obligation. therefore, having the same rights means having the same obligations. it ’ s not just about cherry - picking, if i can put it like that. women who demand complete gender equality must also be ready to take on responsibility. second, gender equality doesn ’ t only concern a career - minded elite. it concerns everyone. so it ’ s not just about female quotas for supervisory boards and executive boards. it ’ s not just about gender - neutral phrasing in legal texts. all that is of relatively little benefit to most women. for the majority it must mean more flexible working hours, respectful treatment, appropriate pay, better child care – just to mention a few things. third, equality ultimately concerns one thing : freedom. every individual should live exactly how she or he wants to. that also means we have to be tolerant of different lifestyles. we have to be tolerant of women ( and men ) who see being at home with the family as a calling ; we have to be tolerant of women who see a career as a calling ; and we have to be tolerant of women who claim both for themselves : family and career. and tolerance isn ’ t the whole story : women with different lifestyles should display solidarity. they should never let themselves make comments like “ she ’ s only a housewife ” or “ she neglected her children for her career ”. despite all this, there ’ s one point we should put on record : basically it ’ s a good sign for us in germany that, when it comes to gender equality, the discussion is usually, though not always, about careers. it means that in other areas we have evidently come a long way. to realise that, it ’ s enough just to look at other countries – in africa, for instance. there are areas where women live in terrible conditions – adolf lette would still be a progressive reformer there 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches today. we must therefore not only look beyond our personal horizons but also beyond our national horizons. from a global perspective, the issue of gender equality has quite a different meaning. nevertheless, gender equality is also making progress at a global level. for instance, the world economic forum ’ s global gender gap report covers the

mario draghi : the financial crisis – impact and responses statement by mr mario draghi, governor of the bank of italy and chairman of the financial stability board, on behalf of albania, greece, italy, malta, portugal, san marino and timor leste, at the seventy - ninth meeting of the development committee ( joint ministerial committee of the boards of governors of the bank and the fund on the transfer of real resources to developing countries ), washington dc, 26 april 2009. * 1. * * a crisis of growing proportions since we last convened in washington for the bank and the fund annual meetings, six months ago, the crisis has taken a new turn. what was then a crisis affecting most advanced economies is now having severe impact on developing and transition countries ( dtc ). several transmission mechanisms have acted adversely over the last semester : financial intermediaries overly exposed to maturity / currency risks have curtailed lending ; heightened risk aversion has massively reduced capital flows into emerging economies ; export revenues have fallen as a result of declining trade volumes and commodity prices ; remittances – normally a countercyclical factor in poor countries – seem to show a reversal in their multiyear upward trend. 2. the bank response to the crisis the world bank group ( wbg ) has promptly responded to the growing financial needs of its client countries by scaling - up its development assistance and leveraging its own resources with those from other public and private donors. president zoellick has pledged to bring new ibrd loans from $ 13bn to $ 35bn in the current fiscal year and up to $ 100bn over the period spanning fiscal years 2009 to 2011. over the same period, ifc plans to fully leverage its capital base by raising its loans to $ 12bn per year. the wbg response to the financial crisis has also led to the development of the vulnerability framework ( vf ), a well - conceived platform intended to provide donors with an ample choice of multilateral development institutions and facilities to channel development funds. the support to trade finance, as envisaged in the vf, will help timely counteract the sharp contraction in trade volumes that emerged in recent months. the vf is well positioned to play an important countercyclical role, backing countries currently cut off from capital markets with additional finance. at the same time it is important that all new resources falling under the vf umbrella meet standards of accountability, oversight and evaluation as rigorous as those governing the use of wb