Women missing in funds management

Women were grossly underrepresented in the US fund manager sector compared to other professions, making up only 9.4 per cent, a study showed.

The ‘Morningstar Research Report — Fund Managers by Gender' showed there were far fewer women in US funds management compared to female doctors (37 per cent), lawyers (33 per cent), or accountants and auditors (63 per cent).

The report also said women exclusively managed 184 funds, or two per cent of the industry's funds and assets.

"Why are there so few women fund managers?" the report asked.

VIEW ALL

View all

"A leaky career pipeline is one reason. The early-stage pipeline certainly has grown more robust."

Women made up 60 per cent of all Bachelor's and Master's degree recipients but this number dropped significantly when it came to women attending business schools. Only 37 per cent of MBAs went to women in 2013.

Less than 17 per cent of US' 50,898 chartered financial analyst charter-holders were women, lower than Australia's rate of 18 per cent.

"With fewer women available, based on education and credentials, the talent pool is dominated by men."

In terms of companies, Dodge and Cox stood first, with 25 per cent female managers, while Franklin Templeton Investments had 14.7 per cent, and JPMorgan had 13.6 per cent.

Only 9.9 per cent of Vanguard's managers were female (13 out of 132 managers), 8.3 per cent of Fidelity Investments' managers were female, and 6.8 per cent of T.Rowe Price's managers were female (five out of 74).

With women set to control half of US' private wealth by 2020 ($22 trillion of assets), it would be natural to see more female fund managers investing that wealth, the report concluded.

These and other issues will be discussed at sister publication, Money Management's Women's Wealth Breakfast on Thursday, 10 September.