Survey reveals “chronic gender disparity” in investment management roles
Three-quarters of institutional investors do not believe all-male investment management teams are a drag on performance, worrying new research into gender diversity across the financial services sector has found.
In a survey for the Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) Institute, just 27 per cent of people working for institutional funds said mixed teams at investment management firms led to a better performance. The number climbed to only 30 per cent among retail investors, in a sign that a lack of pressure from both inside and outside the industry could be stifling the progress to promote more women into high-powered investment roles.
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Only 9.8 per cent of chief executives at global investment firms are women, along with only 15 per cent of portfolio managers, in what the CFA Institute branded "woeful underrepresentation" and "chronic gender disparity".
Nearly half of both retail and institutional investors said they did not care about the gender diversity of investment management teams when it came to picking a strategy. One-quarter said they preferred to invest with companies that promoted gender diversity, but did not believe it improved overall performance.