Female fund managers few and far between
More women in the US may be making investment decisions at home but they only made up 9.4 per cent of all US open-end fund managers, a study found.
The ‘Morningstar Research Report Fund Managers by Gender' found that out of 7,700 portfolio managers of open-end mutual funds, there were only 699 female fund managers, while there were 6,711 male fund managers (90.4 per cent).
The study also found women exclusively ran only 2.5 per cent of assets under management in the $12.6 trillion US open-end mutual fund sector, while men ran 77.9 per cent of the sector.
These figures come despite the fact that 19 per cent of women were the main decision-makers for couples' long-term retirement savings, a figure that has doubled since 2011.
"Why are there so few women fund managers?" the report asked.
"A leaky career pipeline is one reason. The early-stage pipeline certainly has grown more robust."
Women made up 60 per cent of all Bachelor's and Master's degree recipients but this number dropped significantly when it came to women attending business schools. Only 37 per cent of MBAs went to women in 2013.
Less than 17 per cent of US' 50,898 chartered financial analyst charter-holders were women, lower than Australia's rate of 18 per cent.
"With fewer women available, based on education and credentials, the talent pool is dominated by men."
However, there is potential for growth as there are far more CFA charter holders (around 8,500) than there are women fund managers (699), the report said.
With women set to control half of US' private wealth by 2020 ($22 trillion of assets), it would be natural to see more female fund managers investing that wealth, the report concluded.
These and other issues will be discussed at Money Management's Women's Wealth Breakfast on Thursday, 10 September.
AUTHOR
Malavika Santhebennur
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