Why We Need Girls Who Invest

When it comes to gender diversity, investment management has not kept pace with many other industries such as law, academia, and medicine.

 

Gender Diversity is Good for Business

There is broad agreement that gender diversity is good for business. This thinking has been backed up by significant research:

  1. McKinsey and others show that diversity of thought in business leads to more informed and balanced decision making.

  2. Both Catalyst and The CS Research Institute have shown correlations between higher return on sales, equity, and invested capital, and gender diversity at the executive management-level and the board of directors-level at U.S. corporations. Greater gender diversity in an investment team can add 45 basis points per year in net excess returns.

  3. Gender differences in investment approach, perspective and experience can enhance long-term investing success. A number of studies have revealed that people who hold different gender identities invest differently.

Simply put, diverse teams are better positioned to help investors realize their goals. 

The Number of Women Investors is Not Increasing

Graphis demonstating that the number of women investors is not increasing. Example: only 1% of US financial assets are managed by women or individuals from diverse backgrounds.

The Best Investment is in the Pipeline of Women Candidates

For decades now, the industry talent has come from one small corner of the talent pool. The compounding result is that the industry is missing out on the intelligence, creativity, and values of women and gender nonbinary individuals, especially when it comes to managing money. 

While evidence supports the need for gender diversity, young women are less aware that a career in investment management can be meaningful and impactful work.

Negative industry perception and mistrust grew dramatically following the 2008 global financial crisis and is still prevalent today. 

When our founder, Seema R. Hingorani, published an op-ed in Bloomberg titled "'Girls Who Invest’ Would Change Wall Street” the industry listened.

The groundswell of support from people across the gender spectrum in the investment and academic communities globally was a wakeup call signaling that the dearth of women investment talent in the asset management industry had become a critical issue. This reality will not change without a proactive solution to recruit women into the investment business. Girls Who Invest offers investment management firms a real and tangible mechanism for improving gender diversity on their investment teams and making gender diversity a top priority. Together we can transform the industry. 

Engage with GWI

Partnerships are critical to the success of Girls Who Invest. Partners provide much needed donations, mentorship, internships, technical assistance, and skill-building training and advisory services for our organization.

➔ Read about the benefits of being a Girls Who Invest partner.

➔ Learn more about other ways to engage with Girls Who Invest.