It turns out that women-run hedge funds beat the average last quarter, and by quite a margin (8.69% vs 2.69% – http://nyti.ms/UIRhxh). But as most of you are aware, as money managers, women continue to be an under-represented minority in a stubbornly old-boys’-club industry.
Sometimes imbalances like that are market-driven – there’s no question that historically, clients (retail, institutional, etc.) have shown a preference for entrusting their assets to older white men. But in a world where that client bias is becoming less and less true, it’s easy to see that imbalances can also be industry- or insider-driven… or inertia-driven. And wherever an industry value falls behind market values, there is a marketing opportunity.
Marketing is a kind of a match-making effort, helping clients find brands (and vice versa) whose stories, hopes and values mesh with their own. And I think today, the client-side values – explicit or implicit – desire more diversity than the financial industry is providing. It may not be true of all clients, but certainly some organizations should be seeing this as an opportunity, not an arduous uphill battle.
from the World Bank
In the meantime, congrats to women hedge fund managers kicking ass and taking names.
