Women still under-represented in French investment teams

Women are still fairly well represented when looking at the overall private equity industry in France: they account for 40% of total staff in the 120 firms surveyed in this year's report. The figure hasn't improved compared with last year's results though, when men already accounted for 60% of all private equity professionals in the country.

But women are still struggling to make it onto the centre stage: men still account for 83% of staff in investment teams – a figure on par with last year's survey – while support functions are staffed by women in an overwhelming majority (88%). Women are also a more common sight in back office positions (62%).

Even within investment teams, the proportion of women decreases progressively along the hierarchy ladder. While nearly a quarter (23%) of associates across the firms surveyed are women, the figure drops down to 19% for investment director positions, and only 8% for partners. That said, the diversity picture is slightly better when it comes to board and executive committee positions, with women accounting for 15% of staff at these levels.

A glance at promotion statistics also reveals startling diversity issues, notably when it comes to the more senior titles. Women only accounted for 15% of staff members promoted in 2012, against 20% in 2011 – and none of the 55 firms able to provide promotion figures for the study promoted a woman to partner level in 2012.

Mirroring the comparatively higher number of women in these roles, the proportion of women promoted to board and executive committee positions stood at 21% last year, against 4% only for men.

Affirmative action
Are French GPs willing to address the situation and work towards a greater male/female balance at all hierarchy levels? On the face of it, women were better represented in last year's hires (27% of new staff) after a dip in 2011 (19%) – and women accounted for nearly a quarter of investment directors recruited in 2012, up from 2% in the previous year. But the proportion of women recruited at partner level has continued to decline in the past three years: while 41% of partners recruited in 2010 were women, the figure dropped to 20% last year.

Based on the respondents' answers when it comes to diversity policies, it could also be a while before the situation changes. Only 41% of the GPs surveyed are aiming for a greater diversity among their teams – a figure that has been getting progressively smaller since 2010 – with an even smaller 6% having quantifiable targets in place.

But LPs are not necessarily more virtuous in that regard: only 13% of the respondents have several investors that consider team diversity during their due diligence processes, and more than half of the GPs surveyed stated that diversity is never a concern for their LPs. It also would be unfair to single out private equity when it comes to diversity issues in France: according to the survey, a mere 6% of the 2,259 companies in the respondents' portfolios are managed by women.

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