Morningstar recently takes a microscope to the talent pool of the fund management industry, women's credentials in the field, and the ratio of women to men in comparable professions.
In past research, Morningstar found that women fund managers make up 10 percent of the U.S. fund management industry. Morningstar's Director of North American Manager Research Laura Lutton and Quantitative Analyst Madison Sargis have identified areas of progress and regression in the fund industry, shedding light on the lack of diversity in the industry and encouraging gender diversity among fund managers.
Passive and Team-Managed Funds Prove More Inclusive: While women are underrepresented in fund manager roles worldwide, Morningstar's comprehensive 2016 Fund Managers by Gender study showed notable gains in some areas. Women are more likely to manage a passive fund than an active fund, and they're more likely to be chosen to run a fund of funds than a fund that buys and sells individual securities.
Investing in Firms with Female Leaders: Female CEOs comprise 5 percent of S&P 500 companies and women hold 20 percent of board seats. Using the Morningstar Global Risk Model, Morningstar Head of Sustainability Research Jon Hale found that investing in companies with more women managers and better gender diversity tends to outperform investments in companies with few women in management or lower gender diversity.
Global Gender Gap
The map shows the percentage of fund managers by country who are women, according to a statistical model built byMorningstar. The data revealed significant disparities. Women are best represented in some of the smaller marketsfor the traditional mutual fund industry: Singapore had the highest inclusion rate at 30%, and Portugal, Spain, Hong Kong, andFrance were all higher than 20%. The inclusion rates were well below that in the largest markets, with the United Statesand Germany having notably poor representation at 10% and 9%, respectively.
.png)
