The alternative assets industry is continuing its trajectory towards gender equality, according to a new report from Preqin which reveals that as of January 2024, 22% of professionals in the alternative assets space, encompassing investors and fund managers, are women.
On average, between January 2020 and January 2024, there has been a 1% yearly increase in women’s representation across all investors and fund managers in alternatives. In certain firm types, asset classes, and global regions, there are bigger percentage improvements.
However, the proportion of women in senior positions lags the overall figure at just 15%.
Investors have a better representation of women than fund managers is a trend continuing into 2024, as Preqin data highlights, with the overall proportion of women across all investor types reaching 25%. Of this, foundations, as an investor type, have the highest representation of women at 43%, while corporate investors have the lowest at 17%, as of January 2024.
Conversely, the report suggests that just 4,210 fund managers worldwide have diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and initiatives in place. Therefore, of the approximately 50,000 active fund managers on Preqin’s database, fewer than 10% are committed to a DEI program. Of the 1,601 GPs that are women-led, 171 of them have DEI policy or initiatives in place, representing slightly over 10%.
The North American region has the highest representation of women in alternatives at 23%, as of January 2024. This compares to 22% in Europe, 20% in Asia, and 20% in rest-of-world.
In the real estate and venture capital asset classes, North America again had the highest representation of women at 22% and 23%, respectively. However, in private equity, private debt and natural resources, Europe topped other global regions with proportional representation of women at 22%, 23% and 24%, respectively. Meanwhile, Asia had the highest representation of women in the hedge fund space at 24%.
