Globally, only 12% of fund managers were women in 2022, as measured by the Citywire Alpha Female Report. We have set a goal to have at least 25% of our investment professional roles in Australia occupied by women by FY24. At the end of FY23, 19% of these investment professional positions in Australia were held by women and within the Perpetual Group globally, the figure is 21%.
To build greater gender diversity in our industry, it is important to encourage women to join asset and wealth management early in their careers. At a graduate level, we aim to achieve at least 40% female representation in our graduate recruitment to support a gender balanced talent pipeline.
In FY23, 39% of our graduate cohort in Australia were women. Perpetual Group has an ongoing collaboration with Future IM/Pact, aimed at attracting more diverse talent into asset management, and we are into our second year of partnering with F3 (Future Females in Finance).
Our asset management boutiques are also taking actions to increase representation of women in their teams. At Trillium, over 50% of employees are women and 55% of people leaders are women. Trillium have expanded employee benefits, including additional leave for caregivers, resources to support employees in accessing reproductive healthcare, and formalising the hybrid work model established during the pandemic.
J O Hambro is a founding member of Diversity Project Pathway, which seeks to drive change by unlocking female talent to address the absence of women in investment management roles. The initiative gives talented women, who are selected by their firm, access to interactive sessions on technical skills and networking opportunities with senior female fund managers to help them succeed in becoming portfolio managers.