A Gender Gap in Attitudes Towards Monetary Policy? The Case of Satisfaction with the Bank of England

This article investigates the existence and extent of a gender gap in satisfaction with the Bank of England’s performance in controlling inflation. Descriptive data and previous research report gender gaps in attitudes towards monetary institutions and outcomes. Much of this research, however, disregards potential biases arising from women’s lower propensity to express an opinion, and to answer ‘don’t know’ instead. Using the Bank of England’s Inflation Attitudes survey (2001–2025), and modelling selection into substantive answers, I find a statistically significant – yet, substantively small and not persistent – gender gap in satisfaction with the Bank of England. This gender gap remains after controlling for inflation perception and monetary knowledge. I also find that women do not overestimate inflation, and they do not seem to ‘punish’ more harshly the Bank for high inflation or deflation. Therefore, variance in this gender gap can be attributed to a different propensity to report ‘extreme’ opinions, and to different reactions to high inflation or deflation. These findings highlight gendered dimensions for the understanding of monetary institutions and finance, contributing to the literature on satisfaction with the performance of institutions.