Women still underrated in funds management
Despite statistics showing women have a high potential to fill funds management positions, the percentage of females in these roles is not improving following an eight-year tracking study, according to research from Morningstar.
The Morningstar report showed that women were 19 per cent more likely to manage on a team than men, yet it appeared to be too difficult for women to achieve these roles in old and established parts of the finance industry, which included solo-managed and actively managed funds.
Only one in five funds across 56 countries had a female portfolio manager and no change to this had been tracked in the eight years of study.
Singapore was a leader across 56 countries surveyed, where women represented close to a third of fund manager roles and 29 per cent of Chartered Financial Analyst charterholders country-wide.
Morningstar director of manager research in North America, Laura Pavlenko Lutton, said there were niche markets in which women could find opportunities for management positions to help balance out a growing gender bias.
"We did find areas where women are finding more opportunity, specifically among passive funds, funds of funds, and team-managed funds," she said.
"Women are underrepresented in mutual funds' leadership ranks globally, with larger markets farther behind smaller markets."
It was found that the industry's largest equity firms were more likely to elect women to fund manager positions than smaller firms, with 83 per cent higher odds.
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