In a new report published by Preqin, the Women in Alternatives 2022, shows that although the alternatives industry has not seen a major drop in the proportion of female employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is more work to be done to rectify the marked gender imbalance, especially in senior positions.
Gender balance has improved, albeit slowly, across the alternative assets industry as a whole. According to Deloitte, one woman in the C-suite leads to three promotions of women into senior management roles; simply put, the lack of women in leadership positions can negatively affect the prosperity of women in the industry as a whole.
Preqin data shows that a 12.9% of senior positions in the alternatives industry are held by women. As of January 2022, 20.9% of the alternative assets workforce is female – and when looking at investors alone this rises to 24.2% (up from 20.3% and 24.0% respectively a year earlier).
When looking at the female representation in different asset classes, regionally, European private debt fund managers employ the most women – up from 21.6% in 2021 to 22.8% this year.
Rest of World real estate fund managers have the lowest proportion of women on staff – down from 17.3% in 2021 to 15.1% in 2022. In terms of asset classes, infrastructure leads the way with 28.6% female workforce, compared with 24.1% globally; and private equity trails the pack, employing 23.6% women in North America and 21.9% globally.
As of February 2022, just 20.5% of total private equity fund manager employees were women, the Preqin report shows.
While that proportion has increased for the past three years in North America, Europe, and Asia — although by less than one percentage point annually — Rest of World recorded a decline from 18.9% in 2020 to 18.3% in 2021. At senior levels, there are even fewer women; only 9% of CEOs and 8.2% of board members are female.
Women continue to be underrepresented throughout the workforce in financial services.
Deloitte estimates that 24% of senior roles were held by women across financial services in 2021. In alternative assets, the figures are worse still, with Preqin data showing only 12.9% of senior positions held by women.
At fund manager level, the proportion of women in the workforce ranges from 18.9% at real estate firms to 21.1% at venture capital, private debt, and natural resources firms.
The proportion of women in senior positions ranges from 13%, in venture capital, to just 9.8% in real estate. Interestingly, real estate boasts the highest proportion of female employees at junior level (36.3%), making the drop between junior and senior level even more pronounced.
Investors have better female representation throughout the workforce, with 34.4% of junior positions, 26.1% of mid-level positions and 16.7% of senior roles filled by women.
Venture Capital Pulls Ahead
Women have been more successful at launching and managing venture capital funds than in any other alternative asset class.
The number of female-owned funds holding their first close jumped from 32 in 2013 to 158 in 2022, an increase of almost 400% in a decade, which is considerably faster than in private equity (where the increase was 32.1%), and real estate (133.3%) — the only other asset classes where the number of first closes for 2022 is in double digits.
Furthermore, female-founded start-ups backed by venture capital funds raised an average $935,000 (compared to men-founded ones: $2.1mn) and generated $730,000 in revenue (men: $660,000).
A study by Boston Consulting Group and MassChallenge, a US-based network of business accelerators, looked at 350 companies and found that start-ups with at least one female founder raised less money than those with male founders, but generated more revenue over a five-year period. The same study found that, expressed in revenue per dollar invested, female-founded start-ups backed by venture capital outperformed their male-founded counterparts by a considerable margin, returning 78 cents per dollar against 31cents for companies with male founders.
Key Women in Alternative Assets 2022 Facts:
​​​​​​Private Equity:
20.5% – Women account for one-fifth of total private equity fund manager employees
23.6% – North America has the highest proportion of female fund manager employees in private equity
33.4% – A third of junior employees in private equity are women, over double the 13.9% the proportion of senior employees
Venture Capital:
17.4% – China has the highest proportion of female senior employees at venture capital firms in the top 10 locations by aggregate capital raised in the past 10 years
21.1% – Venture capital fund managers have one of the highest percentages of female employees among alternative asset classes
8.1% – The proportion of board members at venture capital fund managers who are women
Private Debt
22.0% – The proportion of female senior employees at private debt firms in China – by far the highest of any location
6.4% – The proportion of female board members in private debt firms
28.0% – More than a quarter of CFOs at private debt firms in Asia are women, compared to a global average of 20.4%
Hedge Funds
10.0% – of portfolio management staff at hedge fund GPs are female
18.6% – Chinese hedge fund firms have the highest proportion of female employees in senior positions
7.1% – of hedge fund firm board members are women
Real Estate
17.4% – France has the highest proportion of women in senior positions at real estate firms
18.9% – Real estate has the lowest proportion of female fund managers across alternatives
4.9% of board members at real estate GPs are women
Infrastructure
4.5% – Proportion of board members at infrastructure GPs that are women
19.1% – France has the highest proportion of female senior employees in infrastructure
23.4% – Almost a quarter of executive directors at infrastructure firms are women
Natural Resources
18.1% – France has the highest proportion of women among its total employees at natural resources firms
36.0% – North America is the region with the highest proportion of female junior employees in natural resources
19.3% – North America also has by far the highest proportion of women in senior positions in natural resources