Male-dominated hedge funds ‘lack targets to redress gender bias’

HEDGE funds have been labelled “laggards” for their continuing dominatation by men and a lack of targets to address the poor gender balance.

Fewer than 3pc of the UK’S hedge funds have women in at least 30pc of client-facing roles, research shows. Just one fund in six has gender targets and only one in 20 has ethnicity targets, EY’S 2019 Global Alternative Fund Survey found.

Ann Cairns, global co-chairman of the 30% Club, which advocates for diversity in corporate jobs, said: “Hedge funds are one of the real laggards and have much ground to make up at the fund management and executive committee level and throughout the pipeline.” The lack of targets to improve the situation is disheartening, added Ms Cairns, who is also executive vice chairman at Mastercard. Financial services ranked 12th on the list of career choices for female students but were seen as more attractive by male students, who rated the sector fourth in the club’s Think Future study.

Denise Davidson, partner at EY, said: “Clearly there is a lot more work to be done to build more diverse workforces.

As the profile of investors change, it is becoming increasingly clear that diversity in the workplace is not only the right thing to do, but it’s of strategic value. It is directly linked to better investment outcomes.”

Back office roles are more evenly split between men and women, according to the study, which monitors the views of funds with assets worth a combined $1.1 trillion (£850bn). Almost five in six UK hedge funds had at least half these roles filled by women.

Growing assets is the top priority of 70pc of managers, while cost cutting was another key area.