Female leadership in Uzbekistan's banks: where business loses strong executives

Female leadership in Uzbekistan's banks: where business loses strong executives

Today, women make up a noticeable part of Uzbekistan's employed population — by the end of 2025, their share reached 43.1%. Against the backdrop of a shortage of managerial talent for banks, the topic of female leadership is turning into a question of the completeness of the talent pool: how effectively are they utilizing the potential of a significant portion of the labor market? The 2026 ECOPSY study shows how the industry is answering this question.

The study involved 42 executives: 32 women and 10 men — members of supervisory boards and boards of directors, as well as top managers from the country's largest banks and high-tech companies.

For banks, female leadership is no longer just an HR issue or a matter of gender equality. Participants in the ECOPSY study view it more broadly — as an indicator of how well a company can find, develop, and promote strong executives.

The development of female leadership is tied to several strategic goals of a bank at once. First, it is talent management: the wider the pool of potential leaders, the more resilient the talent pipeline and the greater the choice when making appointments to critical roles.

Second, it is the quality of managerial decisions. Gender diversity in itself does not guarantee their quality, but different professional trajectories and experiences broaden the scope for decision-making.

Third, it is employer reputation and business sustainability. Transparent career opportunities help retain specialists, while a broad talent pool reduces risks during key leadership transitions.

Therefore, it is more important for business to seek an answer not to the question "How many women should be in management?", but to another: "How effectively does the bank identify and realize the leadership potential of all strong employees?".

One of the key findings of the ECOPSY study is that the majority of respondents do not associate the ability to be a leader with gender.

"I always say, in our bank there are no men, no women. There are only colleagues. And everyone must accept this. You shouldn't think that you are a woman or you are a man, that somewhere you are better, somewhere you are worse. No. There are only colleagues who do a certain part of the common work," says Djafar Saidov, ex Asakabank.

However, a paradox arises here: women are widely represented in staff roles, while among top executives in the banking and financial sector, their share is only 10%.