The FSC Women in Investment Management Charter (WIM Charter) introduced in 2021 builds on the FSC Guidance Note 38 – Improving Gender Balance in Investment Management Teams (GN38) and the gender diversity resource library, which have been developed to provide members with practical tools and guidance to support greater gender balance within investment management teams.
The 2023 FSC Diversity Survey found that women comprise 29 per cent of investment teams amongst respondent fund managers. This compares to investment team representation of 25 per cent in the first year the survey was conducted and 27 per cent in the 2022 survey.
The survey of 16 global and domestic fund manager members found that all wanted to improve diversity in investment teams, with the majority (94 per cent) tracking gender diversity statistics within their organisation and 88 per cent tracking gender diversity within their investment teams.
For more findings, pdf download the 2023 Gender Diversity Survey infographic.
Women in Investment Management Charter
To help support greater gender balance in these roles, the FSC WIM Charter introduces accountability and transparency mechanisms to enable organisations to achieve their desired, self-nominated gender diversity target within their investment management teams. Signatories adopt the following four principles:
- appoint a senior executive from the investment management team who is responsible and accountable for gender diversity within the investment management team;
- set internal targets for gender diversity in the investment management division;
- monitor and report annually on progress against targets and
- demonstrate an intention to link staff pay to delivery against the gender diversity target.
The framework for the WIM Charter is based on the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter (UK Charter), a pledge to improve the gender balance across financial services in the United Kingdom. While the focus of the UK Charter is broader and is aimed at increasing gender balance in senior management, the WIM Charter is focused specifically on gender balance in investment management teams.
Eight WIM Charter Signatories
We are pleased to have eight members collectively managing more than $600 billion in assets under management sign this voluntary initiative to date:
- AllianceBernstein Australia Limited;
- Australian Ethical Investment Ltd;
- Challenger Limited;
- First Sentier Investors;
- Mercer;
- QIC Limited;
- Russell Investment Group and
- State Street Global Advisors Australia Limited.
Further details on the WIM Charter are included in FSC Guidance Note 38 – Improving Gender Balance in Investment Management Teams (GN38).
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FSC Women in Investment Management Charter
Through the FSC Women in Investment Management Charter, we provide industry leadership to ensure more women can secure careers in investment management teams – because today, the numbers are still low. See more below.
Accelerating the growth of women in investment management
The FSC was pleased to host a policy briefing on accelerating the growth of women in investment management webinar on 22 November 2022.
Moderated by Sam Hallinan, CEO Australia, Schroders and panellists, including:
- Camilla Love, F3 0 Future Females in Finance
- Yolanda Beattie, Founder, Future IM/Pact
- Jaya Ong, Investment Analyst, Cambooya
All sharing great insights into the opportunities and challenges faced by the industry to help achieve greater gender balance in investment teams.
The themes discussed included how the industry can better support and accelerate women's careers in investment management and what changes or areas of focus fund management businesses can implement to shift the dial and support greater gender balance.
Please watch the video below to hear more insights into this important topic.