The proportion of women in senior positions at European hedge funds has halved since 2021 – Preqin

LONDON (Reuters) – The proportion of women in senior positions at European hedge funds has more than halved since 2021, according to a report by data provider Preqin on Wednesday.

Commenting on the report, Megan Tobias Neely, a former hedge fund analyst, academic and author of “Hedged Out: Inequality and Insecurity on Wall Street,” said the COVID pandemic and the upheaval in the markets have caused the industry to… old habits relapsed.

“Any perception of instability and people rely more on tight connections in their network. In uncertain times, people do more business with people who resemble them,” she told Reuters in an interview.

“Men will do business with men, networks will be segregated by race and nationality.”

The proportion of women holding general and limited partner positions in hedge funds in Europe has fallen from 17.4% in 2021 to just 8% in 2023, according to Preqin data.

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The proportion of women in the hedge fund industry elsewhere in the world has also fallen from 18.8% in North America to 16.30% and in Asia from 21.2% to 18.9% over the same period.

Of the 10 countries with the highest proportion of women in senior positions in hedge funds, Hong Kong leads the way at 17.3%, while Brazil has the lowest proportion at 7%.

The United States is fifth at 12.9%, behind Hong Kong, Bermuda, France and Canada. According to the data, around 12% of UK hedge fund employees are women.

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“When women in the industry show the same social behavior as men and act aggressively, and you’re proud of that, they get pushed back,” Tobias Neely said, adding one of the challenges for women and people of color working in the hedge fund industry was that they are perceived as riskier than their white male counterparts.

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As of this year, women still make up just 21.3% of the total workforce at all levels of the alternative investment industry, which includes private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, infrastructure and natural resources, the report showed.

Reporting by Nell Mackenzie Editing by Mark Potter

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