The asset management industry has continued to make almost no progress in achieving more gender parity, and optimism that flexible working policies would encourage more women into the industry is fading away as bosses demand more time in the office.
The share of women managing funds rose by just 0.1 percentage point to 12.1% in the past 12 months, according to Citywire's Alpha Female Report 2023, which tracks about 18,000 active managers globally. That's an increase of less than two percentage points from 2016, when Citywire first published the report.
"The number of female portfolio managers remains small and is growing at an even slower pace than before, as a difficult year for asset management is turning into an even worse one for diversity initiatives," said Margaryta Kirakosian, Alpha Female project editor, adding that she doesn't expect any improvement in the short-term.
The lack of progress highlights a failure in the industry to make substantial improvements to encourage more diversity despite a number of initiatives being introduced to tackle the problem.
Women were involved in some way in less than 16% of new funds brought to market, according to Citywire. Yet the number of such launches has also halved as asset managers cut costs. This means there are fewer opportunities created for female managers.
Only five countries have more than 20% women fund managers, according to the report, while asset management hotspots such as the US, the UK and Luxembourg in particular are laggards. Taiwan has the highest percentage, with 29%.
The number of global funds run by a woman dropped to an all-time low of 1,490 globally, from 1,508. At the same time, funds managed by a man increased 4% to 13,110.
Hybrid working made it easier for some women to pursue a career while balancing family demands but a renewed return-to-office push may reverse some of those gains, the report said.
Women's participation in asset management firms with flexible working policies is twice as high as in places offering no flexibility, a separate analysis from investment consultancy Redington showed. The Redington report is based on data from 116 firms managing almost $40 trillion dollars, most of which operate in the UK.
The UK-based Diversity Project launched the Pathway Programme in January, a 12-month mentorship program for aspiring female fund managers. Three of the first class of 60 participants have already been promoted to fund manager roles in their organizations, according to Helena Morrissey, chair of the organization.
"We've got women thinking 'I'm not gonna get flexibility, I'm not gonna get the job that's kind of the lifeblood of the industry—the fund manager role. The gender pay gap is still very significant," Morrissey said in an interview. "We have to work extra hard as an industry to ensure we can attract the best talent."
