Women on Wall Street: Challenging investment industry stereotypes

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However, change is afoot in the industry and investment-management companies that choose to challenge these long-standing stereotypes stand to benefit from building more inclusive and diverse investment teams.

Just as investment managers build diverse portfolios designed to navigate changing and often uncertain market conditions, a diverse investment team draws on many different thought processes and perspectives to deliver the best investment results.

While the asset-management industry has made some progress towards increasing the proportion of women becoming investment professionals, there are still pressing challenges to overcome.

Historically, women interested in pursuing a career in financial services have shown a preference for banking or accounting rather than investment management. Aspirations are the first step towards reality and more needs to be done to attract women into an industry that perhaps isn’t at the top of their minds when considering their career options in the financial services industry.

Progress at pinnacle

The industry is already moving in the right direction, improving from the bottom up rather than the top down. Industry statistics show that women are becoming better represented in entry-level positions, but much progress still needs to be made at higher levels.

27Four’s latest BEE.economics survey shows that 40% of investment analysts and 30% of portfolio managers are female. However, less than 20% of chief investment officers and chief executive officers are women in South Africa.

While we can expect to see more progress over the next five years, with entry-level analysts becoming portfolio managers and portfolio managers becoming chief information officers, investment-management firms still need to consider what can be done to attract more women into the industry.

Just like the investments we run, imbalances start at the bottom and compound their way up – and this is something the investment industry needs to change.

Rupert Hare, head of Multi Asset at Prescient Investment Management, says the company is opening doors and minds to the attractive career prospects offered by the asset-management industry.

“We invest time in attending university events and presenting at career fairs. Still, more is needed to convince more women to favour investment management as a career choice. The industry must also eliminate the perception that it is still male-dominated and that women don’t belong. “

“We challenge stereotypes, and our KPIs encourage us to address imbalances by ensuring we hire investment professionals who have different gender, race and cultural backgrounds. We have made progress, with 50% of our board being female and have a female chief executive officer leading the way for the business. Overall, almost 50% of our workforce is female.”

As the industry evolves, choosing to challenge gender stereotypes in investment management and acknowledging that diversity is integral to the future of investment management will truly benefit an industry already premised on diversifying investment portfolios in pursuit of better risk-adjusted returns. True strength lies in diversity.