Asset management loses diversity

A joint study by KPMG in Germany, Fondsfrauen GmbH, and the University of Mannheim shows that progress in gender diversity in the asset management industry is stalling, with women remaining underrepresented in leadership and entry-level positions.

Key findings:

• The proportion of women in the industry is stagnating at 40 percent, and at 25 percent in management positions
• The proportion of female applicants is rising, but the number of women entering the profession is declining
• "Pink ghettos" are losing importance, but management positions remain male-dominated

The asset management industry is at a turning point: The number of applications from women is rising, but they are less likely to succeed in entering the industry. While the proportion of applications from women reached a new high of 38 percent in 2024, only 36 percent actually manage to enter the profession. The proportion of women in the total workforce is also stagnating at 40 percent, only one in four managers is female (25 percent), and only 16 percent are female managing directors. This is shown by the fifth edition of the study "A Turning Point in Asset Management: Gender Diversity between Progress and New Restraint," which was conducted by KPMG in Germany in collaboration with Fondsfrauen GmbH and the University of Mannheim.

Only around a third of the companies surveyed (36 percent) have an equal pay policy, and less than half (45 percent) have set clear gender diversity targets. Quotas are only implemented by a minority – and the trend is actually declining: while 36 percent of companies had established or voluntarily introduced a fixed quota for women in 2020, this figure will fall to just 27 percent in 2022 and 2024. The promotion of experienced female professionals aged 50 and over is also a neglected issue: less than one in three women (30.4 percent) are between 50 and 67 years old. Many companies offer little for this group, even though they represent a valuable reservoir of experience and expertise.

"Even though gender diversity is a high priority for asset management companies, our results show that there is still room for improvement. There are no plans to expand the measures taken so far beyond the current level. At Fondsfrauen, we will continue to closely monitor the industry through our work and campaign for change," says Anne Connelly, Managing Director of Fondsfrauen GmbH. 

Women continue to be disproportionately represented in human resources (68 percent) and marketing (55 percent), but the numbers are declining (2015: 91 percent in human resources, 75 percent in marketing). At the same time, their share in more technical areas such as portfolio management is rising from 19 percent (2015) to 32 percent (2024). This means that the traditional division of roles is becoming less important, but advancement to key decision-making positions remains the exception. Women are now promoted at a similar rate to men, but this trend hardly continues at the higher levels – the leap to leadership roles is still rare. There has also been little progress in working models: part-time work remains predominantly female – 33 percent of women but only six percent of men work part-time. In management positions, too, the proportion of female part-time workers is significantly higher than that of men, at 60 percent.

KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
Clemens Reisbeck

T +49 89 92821722
creisbeck@kpmg.com

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