Women still under-represented in French investment teams

Greg Gille
21 November 2013

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Although French private equity houses are increasingly trying to address the situation, women remain vastly under-represented in investment teams and in more senior roles, according to the latest survey by Deloitte and trade body AFIC.

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.