New analysis by Frontier has recorded slight improvement in gender diversity in the investment industry since its last study in 2018.
Only 15% of Frontier-rated Australian equity managers had all-male investment teams, down from 45% just four years ago.
Moreover, there were no surveyed global equity managers with all-male teams in 2022 compared to 19% in 2018.
Global equity managers had been markedly more gender diverse than their Australian counterparts.
However, there was little progress made when diversity was measured in terms of overall female participation across investment teams. For teams with a mix of genders, female participation has been static at between 23% to 25%, consistent between both international and domestic managers.
Similar data from the CFA Society Melbourne also reported only 20% of its members were women in its last annual report, up marginally from 17% five years ago.
“Part of the challenge and excitement of investment management is operating surrounded by uncertainty. When chance plays a significant role in determining outcomes, decision-making can become the choice of a good path, rather than the search for the right answer,” the report stated.
“Identifying possible paths and associated consequences, and assigning likelihoods to those paths and consequences, are integral to the investment decision-making process.
“A compelling argument for increased diversity in investment teams is that possible paths and risks may be better identified if a scenario is being considered through different perspectives. These different perspectives may arise from different lived experiences or from different ways of processing information.”
Sarah Guthleben, head of people and culture at Frontier, also outlined the importance of pursuing gender diversity in financial services.
“Firstly, we need to bring more women into investment careers. Then we need to support women to remain in the sector by providing career advancement, particularly for those women combining family responsibilities often at times when their careers are beginning to accelerate,” she said.
“And, finally, we need to keep senior experienced women in the industry for longer to mentor and provide role modelling for emerging women.”
Addressing diversity would lead to more than just an improved equity outcome, Guthleben added, and would lead to improved decision making and better functioning teams across organisations.
In keeping with the findings of this research, Frontier’s own efforts towards bringing more women to the industry have included ensuring job advertisements and position descriptions remove any elements of unconscious bias that could turn away prospective female applicants and the development of a PhD intern program that allows for six-month placements within their investment teams.
“Of course, it is vital to ensure women can develop their careers and gain promotion without impediments, but women moving between organisations or different roles doesn’t lift the overall number of participants. We need to find creative ways to bring more women into the industry and keep them contributing more deeply and for longer,” Guthleben observed.
