What it's like to be something other than white and male in the hedge fund business

Business Insider

The money-management industry has a diversity problem.

A global study from Morningstar last year showed that only one in five mutual-fund managers is a woman - a rate that hasn't budged since 2008.

In the US, that number drops to one in 10. The US is a laggard, far behind countries such as Singapore (30%), Portugal (28%), and France (21%).

For hedge funds, the numbers are similar: Only 15% of hedge fund CEOs are women. For minorities, the figures are just as lackluster, with only a handful of Latino and African-American managers.

There are a lot of reasons for the gap, among them biases, cliquey hiring, and weaker professional networks for women.

Given the dire numbers, I wondered what it's like to be a woman, minority - or both - working in the industry. So in late 2016, I started asking around.

In light of the Harvey Weinstein scandal that hit Hollywood this week, Business Insider is republishing the article on their personal stories, which described first-hand accounts from women in the hedge fund industry about their experiences climbing up the ranks.

Some women recounted casual sexism, like being asked to pour the coffee. Others spoke of not having their investment ideas valued fully until a man pitched them. And in one account, a man who worked on a trading desk recounted how colleagues refused to consider hiring women in the first place.

To be clear, no one we spoke to alleged any instances of sexual harassment. And most said their experiences had, on the whole, been otherwise positive. Investing proves a quantifiable measure on which to be measured, something other careers lack, several people mentioned. There are fewer gray areas on which to be measured, the thinking goes, if you can point to a number that proves your performance for the year.

Everyone asked to be kept anonymous so to not jeopardize their careers. Here are their stories.