but also far - reaching social and structural changes thanks to women ’ s role in our economies and the policy drive to achieve gender parity in the workplace. with the outbreak of the pandemic, the work - life balance measures that organisations had been slowly and painstakingly introducing were imposed to safeguard health. these include new ways of working from home, managing teams and even contacting third parties. starting a conversation by asking about the other person ’ s health and that of their family, friends and work colleagues is now an everyday occurrence. the pandemic has forced us to keep our distance, but in many cases it has brought us nearness and much - called - for flexibility. yet in some cases it has reversed some of the headway made in terms of worklife balance. there are added stresses on account of the dual burden of work and family responsibilities that, according to some studies, appears to have been largely shouldered by women. 7 there are of course those wishing to return to the workplace as soon as possible due to remote working - induced anxiety associated with isolation. these are all side effects of working from home that we will have to tackle with appropriate policies. now more than ever it is important to reaffirm diversity ’ s importance and value. it provides clear benefits such as efficiency, tolerance and a wealth of views in decision - making. we must continue to move forward resolutely and confidently, avoiding any blurring of the private and professional space, dividing tasks rationally and fairly, and harnessing technologies to our benefit to work towards real work - life balance. we cannot allow the pandemic to roll back the progress made in gender equality. thank you. 7 work, women and covid - 19, ipsos mori, united kingdom, 23 october 2020.

##questionably needs to be done to ensure equality in all areas of leadership and team management. at the banco de espana, we are working towards this on several levels. first, we are introducing measures aimed at retaining talent and excellence, based on : ( i ) work - life balance policies, such as remote working and flexible hours ; ( ii ) neutrality in job postings ; ( iii ) mentoring programmes, in which we try to establish an equal number of men and women ; and ( iv ) efforts to ensure parity on selection panels. most of these policies are geared towards all employees, both men and women. this is essential, given that we believe a far - reaching cultural change must be achieved. and that is always more difficult if only some of us are engaged. naturally, to drive such a shift in culture and attitudes, the commitment of senior management is key. this commitment was set out in our first strategic plan 2020 - 24, which was approved this year and includes a firm undertaking to consolidate, reinforce and build on the achievements made in this domain, and also to communicate and spread this message to the outside world. accordingly, the banco de espana is involved in various cross - border initiatives, including most notably a forum we have jointly organised with morocco ’ s central bank since april 2018 and which, this year, unfortunately had to be postponed because of the pandemic. lastly, as part of our research function, this commitment is embodied in an undertaking to assess the implications of the gender gap at our institutions. as indicated by the world economic forum in one of its reports on gender equality, “ ensuring the full development and appropriate deployment of half of the world ’ s total talent pool has a vast bearing on the growth, competitiveness and future - readiness of economies and businesses worldwide ”. 1 i think it is important to underline that this is not about maintaining the existing structures and forcing equality in numbers only. rather, the aim is to change attitudes and drive innovation, diversity and efficiency by including women in decision - making teams. nor is it even a question of justice. the decision to promote diversity is supported by numerous studies that have found mixed management teams to be more innovative, more efficient and better prepared to pre - empt and deal with crises. the covid - 19 crisis has allowed us to pit women ’ s capacity to respond, often with outsidethe - box thinking, against men's. an article published last april in forbes magazine examined how women leaders had responded