IA report reveals only one in 10 industry CEOs and chairpersons are women
Outlines initiatives to address gender issues
A new report by the Investment Association looking at the make-up of the gender pay gap in the asset management industry has revealed only 11% of senior positions in the sector are filled by women.
The report, entitled Closing the Gap, comes as the 4 April deadline for the Government's gender pay gap reporting approaches, and are based on responses from 39 of its member firms.
It also highlights some of the flagship initiatives the industry is taking to help narrow the gap with recommendations for benchmarking and monitoring of progress.
Overall, the report found IA members have a median gender pay gap of 31%, a significant factor being that many senior positions are still filled by men, with just one in 10 (11%) of survey respondents having a female CEO or a female chair. Even worse, only 3% of chief investment officers are women.
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Based on the firms that responded to the survey, an average of two in five (38%) people working in the asset management industry today are women, less than the 47% in financial services as a whole.
The IA said a large part of the gender pay gap cannot be so "straightforwardly explained", but the "motherhood penalty" and behavioural biases are identified as being particularly influential.
It also listed occupation, part-time work and sector as other influences on pay, as also highlighted by the Office for National Statistics.
Initiatives
Meanwhile, the report also set out 15 initiatives the industry is undertaking in order to help address the gender pay gap and promote diversity and inclusivity.
This includes initiatives such as providing mentoring, enhanced parental support policies and hosting female-specific events. They are centred around three types of approach: attraction and recruitment, monitoring, and retention and advancement.
More than half of firms offer early career support initiatives such as female recruitment days (53%) and gender-focused insight days (57%), while 10% offer further education scholarships designed to get young women interested in asset management earlier in their careers.
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Meanwhile, more than two thirds (68%) of firms build gender diversity polices into their recruitment processes from the selection of the recruiters to requiring gender balanced longlists and shortlists.
23% use name blind CVs and 26% require a minimum number of women on interview panels, while 76% provide unconscious bias interview training. Over 52% of firms also have filtered out gender-coded language to ensure female candidates are not put off by language in job adverts.
In terms of retention-focused initiatives, all firms that took part in the research have flexible working programmes with 87% offering enhanced parental leave policies such as emergency childcare funds (47%), as well as having in place a returners policy (30%).
Under the advancement segment, the report revealed more than half of firms have established women's networks (54%), while just under half (43%) have developed mentoring programmes for high potential women.
Nearly two thirds (62%) of IA members surveyed conduct equal pay audits, while 65% currently monitor gender related metrics, though the level of detail on performance indicators varies widely.
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Chris Cummings, CEO of the Investment Association, said these measures could add consistency and granularity to future research.
He said: "The publication of gender pay gap figures is opening up important conversations in boardrooms around Britain about how we recruit, promote and retain a diverse talent pool. The bottom line is clear: firms with a diverse management team and pipeline make better decisions.
"The sobering gender pay gap figures - as opposed to unequal pay which is illegal - published for the first time last year were never going to be fixed overnight, and it will take time for the solutions that our industry are pursuing to bear fruit.
"But it is only by investing in long-term solutions that we can hardwire diversity into the foundations of our industry and help it become more diverse, inclusive and more successful, at every level."
About the author
Jayna is senior reporter and investment trust correspondent at Investment Week. She joined the publication in August 2015 after graduating with an MA in Multimedia Journalism from the University of Kent.
Jayna holds the NCTJ diploma and has experience in print, online and broadcast journalism. She is responsible for the Investment Week monthly podcast.
