Large super funds leading gender equality progress for Australia’s $4+Trillion investment sector

Yolanda Beattie

Australia’s investment management sector remains one of the most male dominated professions in the country – but changing dynamics are finally seeding change for women seeking a career as professional investors, according to a new paper released by female talent incubator Future IM/Pact.

According to the paper “Where are all the Women? How the Australian investment management industry is grappling with its lack of gender diversity and ideas to accelerate progress”, consolidation amongst Australian super funds and the trend for funds to manage assets internally is proving key to breaking down traditional structural barriers which has seen Australia lagging badly on the global diversity stage.

While this is positive news – Future IM/Pact founder Yolanda Beattie said critical structural barriers remained across the sector as fund managers struggled to both attract and retain women investors.

The white paper outlines a range of barriers preventing women entering and excelling in one of Australia’s largest and fastest-growing sectors. These barriers start at university where women are less likely to know about investment management as a career option; a perceived lack of confidence and passion in competing for roles; lack of mentors and sponsorship during early careers; and critical structural barriers due to fund managers having small front-office investment teams with low turnover and junior analysts requiring 2-3 years relevant experience.

Future IM/Pact founder, Yolanda Beattie said large super funds were able to offer a larger range and number of front-office investing roles across bigger investment teams, creating more junior roles and clearer career pathways that are key to attracting and developing junior female talent.

Super funds and asset managers support structural change

One of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, Sunsuper, managing more than $94 billion, has joined Future IM/Pact to help tackle diversity challenges faced by front-office investment teams.

In partnership with Future IM/Pact, Sunsuper aims to reduce the barriers to entry or re-entry for women wanting a future in investment management.

As a partner, Sunsuper plans to bolster its pipeline of female talent through mentorships and connections with women at university and related industries.

Sunsuper’s Chief Investment Officer, Ian Patrick, said: “We know that valuing and including diverse perspectives helps us make better investment decisions for our more than 1.4 million members, and attracting more women into the team is part of that endeavour. The collective effort of Future IM/Pact increases the visibility and reach we can have with young women who are exploring career options, making it easier for us to attract them to our Fund.”

Future IM/Pact launches early career program: Accelerate

Responding to growing demand from industry for help finding women with 2-5 years’ experience, Future IM/Pact is launching an early career program – Accelerate. Accelerate finds smart, numerate women working in traditional feeder roles and gives them exposure to industry leaders as well as development experiences that help them launch their front-office investing career.

Future IM/Pact also welcomes Munro Partners and Australian Ethical to its growing partner base.

“Too many funds believe they’re too small and their staff turnover is too low to have an impact on this issue. These are examples of funds who are determined to add to a collective effort that overcomes the issue of size,” Beattie said.

“Men are up to four times more likely than women to apply for junior analyst roles and when they do, they’re more likely to demonstrate the sought-after attributes of passion and conviction,” Beattie said.

“Because most funds only hire candidates with a minimum of 2-3 years’ experience, it’s not enough to just engage them at university. We need to be engaging women at scale in the traditional feeder roles of investment banking, management consulting, corporate finance and law, as well as at university,” she said.