Women hold just 15% of hedge fund leadership positions

Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Semenova discusses the current figures for women in management at hedge funds.

Video transcript

BRAD SMITH: Despite a push for more diversity across hedge funds, women in upper management roles still remains low. Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Semenova is here with more. Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA SEMENOVA: Well, guys, hedge funds and the alternative investment management industry have made a greater effort in recent years to hire more diverse talent. But when you look at the leadership level, the number of women in key positions is still very low. Only about 15% of C-suite and senior management positions are held by women across top global hedge funds, according to a new report.

What's even more interesting is that the study took a look at the correlation between gender of leadership and performance and found that male and female-led hedge funds generated the same result pretty much. But still, 85% of men hold these high level positions at hedge funds and only 14.5% of women.

BRIAN SOZZI: Why?

ALEXANDRA SEMENOVA: Well, the issue is really prevalent at the top level. When you look at the analyst level, there's more balance between men and women employees. But the report suggests one of the reasons could be that there's institutional bias, and investors are still more wary of seeing women in charge. Another reason that the report suggests is that male leaders have a tendency to promote their male colleagues more often than they do women.

And I've covered hedge funds before. I've had many conversations with experts on this. And the consensus has been that there needs to be more beyond the recruitment level. So once you hire and onboard somebody, what are you doing to ensure that you're retaining that talent, that there's room for them to grow within the business? So lots of room for improvement there when you're looking at these key leadership roles.

BRIAN SOZZI: Absolutely. All right, Alexandra Semenova, thanks so much.