Dutch PE wrestling with gender diversity

Dutch GPs are lagging behind their British counterparts in terms of gender diversity, with women making up only 14% of Dutch private equity professionals, compared with 29% in the UK, according to statistical research by Marie Weijler at private investors network Principal, published in December last year. Another finding from the study is that up to 58% of all Netherlands-headquartered GPs are male-dominated.

But, despite the disappointing figures, Karmijn Kapitaal partner Cilian Jansen Verplanke is positive about changes taking place, first and foremost thanks to the fact that LPs are increasingly keen to back gender-diverse GPs: "More pressure is put on GPs to meet LPs' demands in terms of gender diversity. The latter always ask GPs how their investment team is composed, whether they invest in companies that have a management team that is diverse, and whether advisers in due diligence have a heterogeneous team."

In turn, the private equity industry has shown some initiative in improving diversity. Level 20, a not-for-profit organisation started in the UK in 2016, helps women working in private equity to fulfil their growth ambitions and get promotions. Similarly, an Amsterdam-based committee established in November last year started a mentoring programme and, so far, 14 pairs have been selected with the help of recruiter firm Ebbinge. According to Jansen Verplanke, who is part of the Level 20 Dutch committee, the mentoring programme provides support to women working in private equity, given that their colleagues are often all males and that there is a lack of female role models in their firms. "The programme also helps mentors to learn about what issues young women encounter, so they can be more aware of gender issues within our work culture," she says.

Regulatory efforts
Another development that could have a bearing on gender diversity is the topic of quotas for publicly listed companies, currently being debated in the Netherlands. Bart Hunnekens, a partner at Taylor Wessing, says: "Although not affecting private equity directly, if the quota for listed companies is introduced, this should hopefully influence the general business culture in the country."

Six years ago, the largest companies in the Netherlands were set a goal by the Dutch parliament to have women in 30% of all leadership positions by 1 January 2020. However, the majority are not yet close to this goal, Dutch news source Het Financieele Dagblad reported in September.

Parliamentarian Vera Bergkamp, who belongs to the D66 party, said the current rules for getting more women into top jobs are insufficient and there was no majority support in the Dutch lower chamber for the proposed quotas.

Dutch politicians are also looking at reducing the gender pay gap. A bill on equal pay submitted by a coalition of parties, including the SP, GroenLinks, 50Plus and PvdA, to the lower house in March aims to introduce a number of obligations for companies with 50 or more employees to reduce the wage disparity between women and men who perform the same or very similar work. "The bill would really help the targeted businesses to end the gender pay gap, especially as the potential for reputational damage would be quite high," says Taylor Wessing's Hunnekens. For the world of private equity, the introduction of the law would be meaningful, although GPs with a headcount below 50 would not be affected, Hunnekens says. Furthermore, the bill has only been proposed and is not a priority for the current parliament.

Regulatory pressure aside, APG, the largest pension administrator in the Netherlands, has set an example in terms of ending the gender pay gap: in June, the LP increased the salaries of 125 women who were paid less than men in the same roles. They represented 13% of the pension's female workforce and no wage difference was found for the remaining percentage of female employees.

With LPs such as APG leading the way and putting pressure on GPs, as well as looming regulatory shake-ups, the Dutch private equity community will have to ramp up efforts to bridge the gender gap sooner rather than later.

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• Topics
• GPs
• LPs
• Benelux
• Diversity
• Netherlands