CFA Institute Study on Gender Diversity Reveals Underrepresentation of Women in Investment Management Industry Globally

Study also suggests remedies for their full and equitable advancement in the profession


Bangalore, 21 September 2016: CFA Institute, the global association of investment professionals, has completed the largest survey of investment management professionals on the subject of gender diversity to date. The study finds that while women continue to make gains within the industry, much more needs to be done to ease the global bottleneck that is preventing their full and equitable advancement within the profession.

In the report, Gender Diversity in Investment Management, CFA Institute found that while women continue to be underrepresented at every level and in every function of investment management this disparity could be remedied by focusing on three key areas:


* Providing young women with early exposure to the investment industry in their college years and early career

* Emphasizing to all investors the positive impact that gender diversity can have on investment performance

* Working to bridge the work-life balance gap that disproportionately affects women.


“At CFA Institute, we believe that the time to end the woeful under representation of women within the investment management industry is now,” said Paul Smith, CFA, president and CEO of CFA Institute. “As the industry’s only global standard setter in ethics and best practices, we are asking all of our members and our industry partners to join us in addressing the chronic issue of gender disparity in the investment management industry.”

Vidhu Shekhar, CFA, Country Head, India, CFA Institute said, “Young women are hesitant to enter the investment management industry as it is perceived as being male dominated. However, there are several opportunities for women as well and they should be encouraged to enter the profession. Women bring a unique perspective to their roles across the industry which benefits the companies they work for, and ultimately, the investors.”  

Gender Diversity is increasing in Importance for Investment Managers and their Clients

While portfolio performance is often seen as the ultimate criteria in investment management, the research indicates that a growing number of investment management professionals and investors – both individual and institutional – are placing increasing importance on gender diversity. In fact, the study found that 54 percent of individual investors said that they could expect better investment performance from or would prefer to work with a team of gender diverse investment professionals. A total of 55 percent of institutional investors held the same view. 

While these numbers are encouraging, the fact remains that almost half of the survey respondents do not believe that gender diversity is a significant issue in investment management. This is one of the likeliest reasons why women are so underrepresented at every level of the financial profession. Compared with their male counterparts, the top female investment professionals only hold 9.8 percent of chief executive officer roles, 10.2 percent of chief investment officer roles, 11 percent of chief financial officer roles, 14.9 percent of portfolio managers, 15.1 percent of investment consultants and 17.3 percent of personal financial advisors or planners. Women are also more likely than men to have jobs that support or service those in investment management (22 percent for women versus 16 percent for men).

The gender gap in the investment management profession can also be explained by the divide that happens in the homes of investment industry professionals. 65.9 percent of women reported that they were responsible for 50 percent or more of family care, versus 22.4 percent of men. The survey results did point to one bright spot – while the investment industry is renowned for being demanding, flexibility is a little known benefit. 

These findings draw from the work CFA Institute completed in consultation with finance scholars Renee Adams, Brad Barber, and Terrance Odean, drawing upon a CFA Institute membership survey of more than 5,000 of its members. The research is published in conjunction with CFA Institute Research Foundation.


About the survey

The survey was undertaken in May 2016. 5,259 investment professionals completed the survey: 1,176 from EMEA, including 199 from the UK; 3,334 from the Americas and 749 from APAC.


CFA Institute

CFA Institute is the global association of investment professionals that sets the standard for professional excellence and credentials. The organization is a champion for ethical behavior in investment markets and a respected source of knowledge in the global financial community. The end goal: to create an environment where investors’ interests come first, markets function at their best, and economies grow. CFA Institute has over 147,000 members in 158 countries and territories, including 140,000 CFA charterholders, and 147 member societies.

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SHEROES’The SHIFT –The Men’s Conference pitches ‘Gender Diversity’ as a shared matter

Top CEO’s and Spouses set the tone for evolving gender norms, changing  workplaces and shared roles

April 13 2016,  13.06 PM IST || Pocket News Alert

New Delhi, April 13, 2016: For the first time ever, nearly 65% men including a diversely rich panel of CEO's and founders gathered at the first edition of SHEROES The SHIFT – The Men’s Conference - to mark their support as allies for gender equality. The event emphasized on discussions around men initiating for role reversals and helping women in household work. They pondered over the rise of shared parenting, breaking stereotypes at home and the workplace.

 Ms. Sairee Chahal,Founder,SHEROES at THE SHIFT

Sairee Chahal,Founder,SHEROES.in

The conference moderated by Natasha Badhwar, Founder, The Ochre Sky, facilitated dialogues around the new black in gender equality, and roped in men and women who have been instrumental in shaping change in homes and at the workplace. The event witnessed Taru Kapoor, the Head of Tinder India Ankur Warikoo, CEO and Founder, Nearbuy and spouse Ruchi Warikoo, Rajul Garg, Founder Sunstone Business School, Investor and spouse Rabani Garg, spill the beans on their evolution.

Elucidating further, Sairee Chahal,Founder & CEO, SHEROES.in commented, “Gender equality is no more a women's responsibility. Men are equally participating as it benefits them too. With an increasing number of men taking on the task of caring for children as their partners work, breaking down traditional gender stereotypes has become increasingly important. Today, these CEO's present here disclosed how they spend time with their family despite having a busy life and share work at home with their partners even in terms of parenting. By bringing them in conversation as the advocates of gender diversity, our motive is to inspire those young men and women who consider these men in leadership as their role models.”

Saket Jain, CEO, Fenesta, commented, “It’s high time that we start perceiving gender on a spectrum and not as two divergent sets of standards. We men have a unique responsibility to be out in front on increasing women in the workforce. Let’s not call it a women’s issue but a workforce issue. By getting integrated into this movement, we will be successful in opening up vast opportunities for women in business.”

Ankur Warikoo, Co founder & CEO Nearbuy commented, “It was wonderful to be part of this great initiative by SHEROES.in as a panelist. I think the shift has happened; it’s something that we have started witnessing in bigger cities of India. Whether it’s about sharing finances or taking care of the child, people have started sharing the responsibilities and are equally taking care of all the things.  I personally never believed that there could a shift in responsibilities. Kudos to Team SHEROES.in and Sairee for introducing this fantastic initiative of bringing together people to discuss about this SHIFT. It’s indeed a great way to involve people in contributing and sharing their idea on gender diversity.

Gender equality has been an ongoing issue for tech giants like Facebook and Accenture. As the work towards improving the gender diversity continues, there are some other companies like Tinder, who have joined hands with SHEROES.in to establish a network of people, allowing them to share their views on diversity that is worth noting and learning.

About SHEROES:

SHEROES.in is the career destination for women from all walks of professional life. It’s the only platform that provides the career Eco-system for women with opportunities of various work formats – full time, flex work options, entrepreneurial work options, internships, projects etc. The SHEROES.in Community has access to high growth career resources, mentor-ship and support. SHEROES.in engages with businesses to help them connect with female talent in form of employees, partners, customers and business owners.

SHEROES.in is built around career and life stages of women and assists them throughout their career in terms of work opportunities that best fit their lives, career resources and mentor-ship.

Focusing on women seeking a career , SHEROES is an online career destination for women from all walks of professional life. The platform finds mentorship, career resources and career content along with career advice and opportunities of various work formats – full-time, flex work options, entrepreneurial work options, internships, projects etc.

Based out of Noida (UP), SHEROES was incorporated by Sairee Chahal in January 2014 with the sole purpose of helping women navigate their professional roadmaps and find a career that fits their life. It's the only platform that provides a career eco-system for women and also curates work-from-home jobs in India in order to build an exclusive community of working women. With a community comprising over half a million members, SHEROES is a platform-centric model that helps connect businesses to women professionals. These include digital products, channel programs, hiring initiatives, employee branding, custom and special projects. It also offers online branding and recruitment products, assisted hiring subscriptions and customized consulting for corporates through its highly experienced mentors. Apart from these, SHEROES is also an engagement platform for brand marketers, looking to engage with urban educated women between the age group of 24 and 40.

Within two years of its existence, SHEROES has grown consistently at a rate of 300% CAGR with the help of its strong 30-member team. The company has over 7000 companies and over half a million women professionals on the platform from 5000 locations. It has already processed over a million service requests for its community members. Having said that, the company is also a proud recipient of several awards and recognitions like the Devi Award, Loreal Femina Power list, Femina Achievers Award and Business Today Most Powerful Woman award in Indian Business.

Moving ahead with numerous milestones to its credit, SHEROES recently raised an angel round of funding worth approx. Rs 5 crore for making investments in the community and the product. The company controls some of the largest diversity initiatives, channel programs and returning professionals programs. By further strengthening its product offering and creating synergies between various ecosystem partners, SHEROES envisions putting every Indian woman's career on the map and impact the lives of 100 million women in the next 10 years.

Sairee Chahal Founder and CEO SHEROES Spokesperson

Sairee Chahal is the founder and the mastermind behind SHEROES, a Noida-based online career destination for women from all walks of professional life. Taking on the role of being India's foremost evangelist for women at work, she is also the Convener of The SHEROES Summit and has been instrumental in bringing businesses and women professionals on the company's platform.

An M.Phil graduate from JNU and a PGDBM holder from IMT Ghaziabad, Sairee kick started her professional career while at college, taking up writing assignments for a business magazine and assisting India-CIS Chambers of Commerce. She also co-translated a book on the life of poet Rahim from Hindi to Russian, worked on a Discovery Channel documentary called ‘Holy Men of India' and was a consultant with Heidrick and Struggles before co-founding SAITA Consulting, Fleximoms and the world's first newspaper for mariners, Newslink Services. All this while, Sairee observed that the careers for women are cyclical and they have unique needs when it comes to navigating their professional roadmaps. This was when she ideated and executed SHEROES as a platform that would help them build their careers and personal growth. With the help of a capable and committed team of 30 diverse professionals, Sairee is leading her company towards a consistent growth rate of 300% CAGR within 2 years of its inception. She envisions putting every Indian woman's career on the map and impact the lives of 100 million women in the next 10 years, by moving the needle on women at work, gender diversity and women in the workforce.

A big crusader for enterprise, innovation, start-ups, sustainable development and post-Soviet economies, Sairee has become an inspiration for many with a notable  list of prestigious awards and recognitions to her credit including the Devi Award, Loreal Femina Power list, Femina Achievers Award, a nominee for the Editor's choice for L'oreal Femina Women's Award to name a few.  She is also a Cartier Women's Award Initiative for 2012 alumni, a TED speaker, Business Today, Most Powerful Women in Indian Business 2012 and has been featured on popular shows like Young Turks, Pioneering Spirit and What Women Want. She is also among the chosen Brand Ambassadors at FARO, a global fashion brand being proudly built from within India.

When not in her corporate avatar, Sairee enjoys spending quality time with her 8-year old daughter and her husband, besides reading and practicing yoga.

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