Cultural Problems
Girls Who Invest will also address another problem faced by female fund managers -- networking.
“Traditionally in our industry a lot of business gets done at night over dinner or over cocktails,” Hingorani says. “There’s often an issue with senior men mentoring women. When a woman is seen interacting with a senior man in these environments, it can create talk around the office. Culturally, firms can do a better job making it OK for these types of interactions to happen."
Girls Who Invest will back the establishment of investment clubs in high schools and will organize networking and interview opportunities at business schools. The organization will attempt to cast a broad net -- to both private and public schools in areas with different levels of socioeconomic status and to students from varying ethnic backgrounds.
Recent research suggests that diversity pays. A 2013 study by Rothstein Kass found that funds majority-owned by women had outpaced the hedge fund industry by more than 7 percent since the financial crisis, and a Morningstar study released in June 2015 found that teams with a mix of genders outperformed those with just men or women.
“It really isn’t just about social good,” Hingorani says. “There are plenty of studies that show gender diverse teams do better. Men and women invest differently; it’s not to say that one is better than the other, but that when you put them together you get better results. When I talk to managers about this, they get it and I think they all want to figure it out.”
Hingorani acknowledges that the cultural biases discouraging girls from pursuing financial services careers are just one of the reasons for the shortage of women in fund management.
“It’s a formidable problem because it is so complex,” Hingorani says. “I know that there are cultural issues that make investment management less attractive to some women. There’s an intimidation factor and a perceived misogyny. Girls Who Invest is only addressing part of the problem, but we have to start somewhere, and we know there’s a pipeline issue. At the same time though, I think we can help start engaging folks on the other issues.”