Stockholm (NordSIP) – Gender equality remains an issue across the globe. According to data from Eurostat, income inequality remains quite large at the EU level, with aggregate figures suggesting women earn 12.7% less than their male counterparts in 2022. The same figure in the USA was 18%. The financial industry is no exception to this.
In its 2024 Alpha Female Report on the evolution of gender equality in the asset management industry, Citywire noted that although some progress has taken place, much still remains to be done. The report is based on Citywire’s database that tracks 18,141 portfolio managers globally.
Limited Increase of Women in Asset Management
According to the report, the share of women working in portfolio management roles has risen from 12.1% to 12.5%. The latest data also shows the average rate of turnover for female portfolio managers, measured over ten years, was 43% for the period to 2024, compared with only a 29% average turnover rate among their male counterparts.
The report highlights BNP Paribas AM, CaixaBAnk and BBVA as the institutions with the most female fund managers and Natixis IM, Oddo BHF AM and Brandes IP as the organisations where women fund managers stay the longest. It also highlights and discusses three reasons for the higher turnover of women vis-à-vis men in the fund management industry: maternity leave, the gender experience gap and poaching.
Varied Outcomes Across the Nordics
According to the figures collected by Citywire, female representation across national industries varies considerably across the Nordics.
The data points to Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Spain and Sweden as where women represent a higher share of fund managers, with the the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Liechtenstein and lastly Brazil as the worse performers. Finland and Norway come in 15th and 17th on the ranking respectively.
Among the top 25 female fund managers in the report, only two came from Scandinavia: Angelica Hanson, from AMF Fonder, and Mariann Stoltenberg Lind, from ODIN.
