Key Takeaways
- • Only about 22 percent of US private equity investment professionals are women, and only 6 percent hold senior-level roles, according to a new Columbia Business School report by Michael Ewens covering 661 firms.
- • Between 2021 and 2023, female representation among all investment professionals rose just 2 percentage points, from about 20 percent to about 22 percent, while senior-level representation stayed around 6 percent.
- • 31 percent of firms have investment teams with no women, and 349 of the 661 firms had no women in senior roles.
- • Only 5 percent of firms are female-founded and 4 percent have female managing partners or CEOs.
- • Ewens rules out a talent pool problem, noting that roughly 40 to 45 percent of investment banking junior analysts and associates are women and about half of incoming MBA classes are women.
Summary
A new report by Michael Ewens, the David L. and Elsie M. Dodd Professor of Finance at Columbia Business School, analyzes gender representation among investment professionals at 661 US private equity firms. Ewens found that only about 22 percent of investment professionals are women, and at the senior level the share is just 6 percent. The report concludes that firms must attract, retain, and promote more women to reach gender parity.
The research team, which also included Jill Fink of Three Cairns Group and Joseph Choi of Columbia Business School, built one of the largest published databases on the US private equity market. Because they wanted the data to be open source and publicly available, they did not rely on commercial providers, instead drawing on public regulatory filings, LinkedIn profiles, and collaboration with industry professionals. They supplemented the database with seven focus groups including female investment, DEI, and HR professionals.
The data show limited progress. Between 2021 and 2023, female representation among junior professionals rose from 25 to 27 percent and at the mid-level from 18 to 20 percent. Larger firms showed more gender parity than smaller ones. Only 5 percent of firms were female-founded, and 4 percent had female managing partners or CEOs. The researchers have not yet determined why these disparities exist, but Ewens argues the problem is not talent supply, pointing to the share of women in investment banking analyst roles and MBA classes.
The report recommends measures across the employee lifecycle. To attract women, it suggests greater visibility for women in firms, undergraduate internships, career forums, and technical skills training. To retain them, it proposes family-responsive flexibility, formal mentorship, and more inclusive office culture. For promotion, it highlights regular feedback, transparent expectations, and sponsorship from senior leaders. The researchers plan to update the database annually to serve as an industry benchmark and to evaluate which policies are effective.
Ewens argues that gender imbalance in an industry where significant value is created is economically inefficient, saying "Obviously, there's money being left on the table." He characterizes the view that diverse teams improve investment decisions, including company selection, deal structuring, and exits, as a hypothesis that is difficult to prove with data.
The research team, which also included Jill Fink of Three Cairns Group and Joseph Choi of Columbia Business School, built one of the largest published databases on the US private equity market. Because they wanted the data to be open source and publicly available, they did not rely on commercial providers, instead drawing on public regulatory filings, LinkedIn profiles, and collaboration with industry professionals. They supplemented the database with seven focus groups including female investment, DEI, and HR professionals.
The data show limited progress. Between 2021 and 2023, female representation among junior professionals rose from 25 to 27 percent and at the mid-level from 18 to 20 percent. Larger firms showed more gender parity than smaller ones. Only 5 percent of firms were female-founded, and 4 percent had female managing partners or CEOs. The researchers have not yet determined why these disparities exist, but Ewens argues the problem is not talent supply, pointing to the share of women in investment banking analyst roles and MBA classes.
The report recommends measures across the employee lifecycle. To attract women, it suggests greater visibility for women in firms, undergraduate internships, career forums, and technical skills training. To retain them, it proposes family-responsive flexibility, formal mentorship, and more inclusive office culture. For promotion, it highlights regular feedback, transparent expectations, and sponsorship from senior leaders. The researchers plan to update the database annually to serve as an industry benchmark and to evaluate which policies are effective.
Ewens argues that gender imbalance in an industry where significant value is created is economically inefficient, saying "Obviously, there's money being left on the table." He characterizes the view that diverse teams improve investment decisions, including company selection, deal structuring, and exits, as a hypothesis that is difficult to prove with data.
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