The firm also elevated women from more junior roles to fund manager, including the employee who brought the sexual harassment claim last year, people familiar with the promotions said.

And Jennifer Fo Cardillo, who was moved up from analyst, is set to become solo manager of more than $2.5 billion in small cap assets. Cardillo, who joined Fidelity nine years ago after receiving a bachelors in finance from Boston College, is currently co-manager and will replace James Harmon, who is retiring next June.

Robby Greengold, an analyst at Morningstar who has examined the stock unit, calls the changes there incremental.

“Fidelity has a long history as a star manager-led investment firm,” he said. “They are not looking to undo what has worked well.”

Across the industry, the number of women in money management remains strikingly low. By one measure, they are even losing ground.

Industry Slide
The number of females working as mutual fund managers declined from a peak of 14 percent in 1999 to about 10 percent in 2016, according to a study by a Federal Reserve economist and two professors who examined more than 12,500 managers over 24 years. They found that women are less likely to be promoted compared to men with comparable performance.

“We still see a preference for males because of the assumption that they are more competent," said Mabel Abraham, an assistant professor at Columbia Business School, who co-authored a study with Tristan Botelho of Yale showing that investors trusted the stock picks of male fund managers over those of females with similar performance. “When women are being evaluated, whether by peers or hiring managers, there is more scrutiny.”

Fidelity says it has made strides in promoting women over the years but there’s more to do. Its top female executives include the presidents of fixed income, institutional asset management and personal investing -- all of whom held the posts prior to this year. Fidelity, like Dodge & Cox and Russell Investments, are among the few asset management firms led by female CEOs.

To build its bench of female talent, Fidelity is expanding recruitment efforts as fewer young women consider careers in finance.

Three years ago, Fidelity started bringing high school girls into the firm to introduce them to investing. Last summer it began searching for top graduates from all four-year colleges and universities rather than a select list of schools.