Level 20 finds that nearly one in four investors are women
One of Level 20’s aims is to provide reliable, consistent data, tracking gender representation and progress across private equity and venture capital GPs. We are proud to have been working with the BVCA on UK data since 2018, and in recent years expanded our work to cover our European chapters, and now – for the first time - the US.
Our latest data on the number of women in private equity reveals a mixed picture but we are pleased to see the second edition of our European Gender Diversity Report 2024: Women working in European Private Equity & Venture Capital showing that nearly one in four investors are now women, with overall growth of women in senior roles across the industry, from 10% in 2022 to 14% in 2024.
Brand new research launched in New York in September reflects less than half those European figures - only 6% of senior roles in private equity in the US are held by women. Female Investment Professionals in US Private Equity: A Numerical Analysis and Opportunities for Further Exploration was produced in collaboration by Level 20, Columbia Business School and Three Cairns Group. It’s the largest dataset of US private equity investment professionals, tracking women’s representation across more than 600 firms, and was released in draft form to enable conversations with the industry on this new data set, with the final report due to be published next year.
Progress in Europe
The European Gender Diversity Report 2024 looked at 11,500 investment professionals in more than 700 firms across 13 countries, and found that 24% of investment professionals are women, up from 20% in 2022.
The number of local all-male investment teams has decreased significantly from 38% in 2022 to 26% in 2024.
At junior levels, change has been slower. 35% represents a strong pipeline for retention and promotion, but focus is still necessary in recruitment for progress to be sustainable.
Venture leads the way
One of the trends which continues is the tendency for Venture Capital to lead before Private Equity on gender diversity. VC firms tend to be more recently established, at a time when workforce diversity is in focus, and employees tend to skew younger in age with smaller teams which tend to allow for a more flexible structure.
Industry challenges and opportunities
Both the European and US reports used focus groups to understand the challenges and areas for development in attracting, retaining and promoting women – with the findings broadly similar across geographies. In Europe, we have refined our Drivers of Gender equity model, adding a new dimension of analysis through a matrix which looks at common challenges between countries.
The key messages from the discussions for this report continue to include normalising men taking paternity leave and sharing family responsibilities, more focus on equitable access to sponsorship and robust feedback, and the need for greater visibility and higher profile for mid-level and senior women. The positive influence of LPs in driving better gender balance was also discussed. The recent ACCELERATE and Family Leave reports complement this work with concrete actions that firms can take to drive change.
Benchmarking tools
In addition to the data, both reports also feature a benchmarking tool which allows firms to see how they are tracking against their peers across countries and AUM bands.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the UK
It has been an exciting Autumn for Level 20, and we’re pleased to now also have launched the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion survey, in partnership with the BVCA, to gather data directly from GP firms in the UK to update the data for the UK market.
This year, data will be gathered on gender, ethnicity, seniority, and representation within investment teams, committees and firm board appointees. Additionally, the survey will address broader topics such as recruitment and promotion practices and will collect data on other protected characteristics to gain a deeper understanding of inclusion across the sector.
We are always pleased with the engagement of firms and individuals across the industry in this work, and we look forward to the conversations on the UK data, as well as the continental comparisons, in the coming months.
Authored by Cassie Lloyd Perrin
Head of Industry Impact, Level 20
