Girls Who Invest was founded in 2015 by hedge fund and pension veteran Seema Hingorani, chief investment officer at SevenStep Capital, in response to the low levels of women in the asset management industry. The organization’s goal is “30 by 30,” to see 30 percent of the world’s capital managed by women by the year 2030.
A 2013 study by Quantitative Management Associates found that women occupy only 10 percent of the senior roles in long-only institutional equity management. Earlier studies by the Harvard Business School found that women occupy just 9 percent of the senior roles in venture capital and 6 percent in private equity. At hedge funds, women represent merely 3 percent of the senior management.
“It’s noteworthy to point out that women have made great strides in plenty of other professions, but our industry has really fallen behind,” says Powers Dunlap. “The narrative we hear is that women are thinking about becoming doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, but are not interested in investment management. Yet when we put investment management among the options they can choose from, we find that they’re interested.”
Girls Who Invest launched the Summer Intensive Program in 2016 as a pilot program with 30 students.
This year’s 60 on-site attendees at Penn represent 33 colleges, 18 states and seven countries.
At Penn, students are educated in core finance and investment concepts and skills from business school professors and established industry professionals. The program also includes lessons on soft skills useful to investment managers, including presentations and financial ethics. After the educational portion of the program, students engage in six-week paid internships with leading asset management firms in the U.S. and abroad.
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Baron’s, Livermore Capital, Greenspan Associates, PNC and the Carlyle Group are among the companies that have sponsored past participants.
This summer, every one of the attendees of the 2016 pilot program is employed or interning in asset management at firms including Goldman Sachs, Wellington, Artisan Partners, Fidelity Equity Research, Bank of America and JP Morgan, says Powers Dunlap.
“There are a lot of young women who find investing interesting, especially the growth of passive and quantitative study,” she says. “There are a lot of math majors out there who want to use their knowledge and talent, but they hadn’t thought about asset management as a way to apply those skills. They get very excited when they hear that their passion and their skills could be very valuable.”