Australia's alpha female representation regresses: Report

Representation of females in Australia's funds management industry has regressed over the last five years, while progress on gender diversity on a global scale has also gone backwards.

Citywire's 2026 Alpha Female Report counted Australia as having 65 female portfolio managers out of a pool of 791, equating to 8.2% representation. Over the last five years, this has dropped by 0.4 percentage points.

In the Asia region, Tawain leads the way with the highest female representation of 31.1%, followed by Singapore at 24.8% and Hong Kong at 24.2%.

Spain and Italy are leading the way in Europe, with 21.1% and 19.4% female managers respectively.

Switzerland and Germany are near the bottom of the country table, with just 8% and 7.2% women managers respectively.

The study found that after a decade of slow progress in improving female representation in funds management, gains have been stunted.

Women now account for 12.6% of active fund managers globally, down from 12.9% last year.

The number of female managers of active funds stood at 2283 globally, a decline of 88 compared to the prior year.

"That fall has outpaced the decline in male active fund managers, as active funds continue to suffer at the hands of cheaper passive options," the report read, adding the fall in the number women was faster than the decline in active fund managers year-on-year.

Women were also handed fewer fund launches than men. Some 83% of new fund launches were spearheaded by men.

The ETF sector's representation is not any better. Just 10.3% of managers of passive funds are women, down from 10.9% the prior year.

In terms of tenure, women spend on average of 4.6 years on a fund while men stay for 6.9 years.

Fidelity Investments co-portfolio managers Cait Gourney and Finola McGuire Foley are two women who manage the largest assets, helping oversee €442 billion ($712bn) in assets in the US, together with Brett Sumsion and Andrew Dierdorf.

Citywire tracks 18,117 portfolio managers running a total of 28,649 active funds globally.