Although more women are working in private capital and hedge funds than two years ago, the industry still has a long way to go before achieving gender parity, new research from Preqin said.
According to the research, women make up 19.7% of the alternatives workforce, an increase of 0.9 percentage points compared with 2017, when Preqin last released comparable data. However, women occupy less than 12% of senior roles in alternatives firms.
While private equity, venture capital and hedge funds now have a larger proportion of female employees, private debt, real estate, infrastructure and natural resources investment firms indicated decreases in female representation.
Venture capital has the highest level of women in leadership positions, at 13.5%, while real estate was the lowest asset class, with 8.5%.
"The alternatives industry is not alone in reporting low female representation in senior positions. In global banking for instance, women hold less than 20% of board seats and account for less than 2% of bank CEOs, according to a 2017 study by the International Monetary Fund," the research fact sheet said.
Preqin will release its full "Women in Alternative Assets 2020" report, of which this research is an excerpt, early next year.
