Women in Public Finance

Public finance is often considered a discipline where numbers, efficiency, and productivity talk. And while gender budgeting, a field of public financial management (PFM), has gained increasing attention in recent years, the personal stories of the women driving this work have remained largely invisible. This is the first book to share unprecedented insider narratives from the women shaping public finance and public policy.

It brings together the stories and conversations of 22 professional women from around the globe who are all working in the fields of PFM and gender budgeting, a space largely dominated by men. These authentic first-person accounts provide rare insights into both the barriers and breakthroughs experienced by women in a field traditionally dominated by technical discourse and masculine perspectives. It demonstrates how women's presence at decision-making tables directly opens the discussions on inclusive, sustainable, and effective public finance outcomes. It provides:

• Authentic insights into gender representation in PFM and how it can be advanced within the structures of public finance—from ministries of finance to donor agencies and civil society.
• Encouragement and strategic guidance in navigating leadership, reform fatigue, and institutional resistance, particularly women and underrepresented groups.
• A storytelling approach, helping readers to relate to this largely technical area.
• Concrete examples of successful reform and personal stories of resilience, valuable for professionals creating capacity-building programs, applying change management, or shaping institutional culture.

This important book is for public finance professionals, civil servants, economists, gender policy advisors, donor agency staff, civil society organizations, and graduate students in gender studies, public policy, governance, and development programs, providing both inspiration and practical pathways for creating more equitable financial systems worldwide.