A Morningstar study reported that there has been no improvement in women’s participation rates in the fund management sector since 2008. The study found that about one in five funds has at least one female manager and that women have been named fund managers at a relatively higher rate in places such as Hong Kong, Singapore, France, Spain, and Israel, where at least 20 percent of fund managers are women. According to the study, in larger financial centers such as Brazil, India, Germany, and the United States, the local rate of women-managed funds is below the global standard. For instance, in the U.S. 10 percent of fund managers are women. The Morningstar study considered 26,340 managers of funds registered in 56 countries, all of which are included in Morningstar’s global database. Among other findings in the study:
- Countries with large financial centers have lower proportions of women fund managers than many smaller markets.
- Women have better odds of managing funds in areas of industry growth, passively managed funds, funds of funds, and team-managed funds. It appears more difficult for women to secure management roles in more established parts of the fund industry: actively managed funds and solo-managed funds.
- In some asset classes, women fund managers are more-credentialed than men, yet they are still broadly underrepresented in fund portfolio manager ranks.
- Women have lower odds today of managing the types of funds that were once more likely to have women managers, including smaller funds and socially responsible funds.
- The industry’s largest firms are more likely to name women as fund managers than smaller firms.