To celebrate Women’s World Banking’s 45th anniversary, we are showcasing the voices of individuals from around the world who have shaped and touched Women’s World Banking journey since its inception in 1979 at Commission on the Status of Women to today!
These are stories from across Women’s World Banking’s reach from the women we serve and our customers, to allies and women in leadership who have contributed to women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion.
As Women’s World Banking celebrates 45 years of advancing women’s financial inclusion, we are proud to spotlight individuals who have been a part of our journey. These are the trailblazers, advocates, and allies who have transformed financial systems and inspired millions. One such individual is Jo Ann Barefoot—a fearless leader whose story epitomizes the power of innovation, resilience, and unyielding dedication to equity.
What happens when financial systems are not designed to serve everyone equally? For many women, the barriers to financial inclusion are more pronounced in the digital era. A recent study revealed that 16% of women are more likely to lose money to scams compared to 12% of men. Jo Ann Barefoot has spent her career addressing these inequities and driving solutions to create financial systems that work for women and underserved communities.
Jo Ann’s career reflects a spirit of adventure, resilience, and innovation, which mirrors her personal life. A survivor of both polio and cancer, Jo Ann approaches challenges—whether in finance or life—with remarkable grit. She has fly-fished on five continents, run marathons, and even survived being charged by an Alaskan brown bear. Her adventurous spirit has fueled her professional mission to take on big, systemic challenges and create meaningful change.
Discovering the Mission: Jo Ann’s Journey to Inclusive Finance
Jo Ann’s career began during a time when gender discrimination in finance was not only tolerated but also institutionalized. She recalls, “Lenders would insist that a woman have her husband or father co-sign a loan because she might get pregnant.” These glaring inequities inspired Jo Ann to pursue a career dedicated to consumer protection and financial inclusion.
Her path is marked by a series of groundbreaking achievements. Jo Ann became the first woman to serve as Deputy Comptroller of the Currency, where she worked to dismantle discriminatory practices and pave the way for women and minority groups to access fair financial services. Today, as CEO and Co-founder of the Alliance for Innovative Regulation (AIR), Jo Ann is on the cutting edge of digitizing financial regulation to build systems that are both fair and resilient.
“If we can get regulation right alongside innovation, we can make financial services work better for more people,” she explains. This philosophy has guided her work at AIR, where she collaborates with policymakers, regulators, and industry leaders to address some of the most pressing challenges in finance.
Balancing Regulation and Innovation: A Delicate Dance
Jo Ann describes the relationship between regulation and innovation as “a marriage that often ends in divorce.” While technology offers unprecedented opportunities to expand financial access, it also poses risks, particularly for women and marginalized communities. Hidden fees, opaque terms, and overly complex financial products disproportionately harm those with lower financial literacy.
Jo Ann envisions a future where artificial intelligence (AI) can empower consumers by acting as personalized financial assistants. “We should work toward a system in which every consumer has the equivalent of an AI agent that can help her know what she needs,” she says. However, she cautions that these tools must be designed with consumer protection in mind.
“We would have to be sure that that assistant was optimized for [the consumer’s] best interest and not somebody else’s,” she warns. This means holding AI accountable, equipping regulators with modern tools, and ensuring that data is free from bias. Jo Ann is a strong advocate for gender-disaggregated data, which she believes is essential for identifying and addressing inequities.
“The notion that we need these sort of gender-blind information sets is just obsolete,” she says. By collecting and analyzing better data, policymakers and innovators can design solutions that truly work for women.
This delicate dance, along with the need for equal female representation in regulatory bodies, is exactly why Women’s World Banking and AIR together launched Women in Inclusive Tech Regulation Program to ensure that the women regulatory leaders of tomorrow are equipped to shape a more inclusive and innovative digital financial future.
Consumer Protection: A Foundation for Financial Inclusion
For Jo Ann, consumer protection is more than a policy objective—it’s a cornerstone of financial inclusion. Women’s World Banking had the pleasure of sitting down with Jo Ann to talk about consumer protection as finance’s heroine. She believes financial systems must be built with transparency, simplicity, and fairness at their core. “Women need protection from deception and the complexity that makes it hard for them to make a good decision,” she emphasizes.
Her vision for consumer protection includes robust safeguards against bias and deception, access to clear information, and systems that prioritize the needs of underserved populations. These principles are especially critical as financial services become increasingly digital, creating new risks alongside new opportunities.
A Legacy of Innovation and Resilience
Jo Ann’s career is a testament to the power of resilience, innovation, and an unrelenting commitment to justice. Beyond her professional achievements, her personal adventures—whether surviving a sinking boat in Chile or solo traveling a mountain road with a herd of horses—reflect her fearless approach to life.
Jo Ann’s work continues to inspire others to reimagine what’s possible in finance. Her insights on balancing regulation and innovation, her advocacy for gender equity, and her dedication to consumer protection provide a roadmap for creating systems that work for everyone.
As we celebrate Women’s World Banking’s 45th anniversary, we honor leaders like Jo Ann Barefoot who remind us that true progress requires both courage and creativity. Her story serves as a powerful reminder of what can be achieved when we dare to challenge the status quo and build systems that empower women everywhere.
Women’s World Banking is dedicated to economic empowerment through financial inclusion for the nearly one billion women in the world with no or limited access to formal financial services. Using our sophisticated market and consumer research, we turn insights into real action to design and advocate for policy engagement, digital financial solutions, workplace leadership programs, and gender lens investing.
As part of our current strategy, we’ve helped provide over 83 million women in emerging markets – targeting 100 million by 2027 – access and use of financial products and services that are transforming women’s lives, households, businesses and communities, and driving inclusive growth globally.
Help us reach the nearly billion women still excluded from the formal financial system. Donate now.
