Helena Morrissey: We need more women in funds to affect change

In honour of International Women's Day 2016, we look back at an interview with Helena Morrissey of Newton Asset Management that was filmed at FundForum International 2015, where she discusses cognitive diversity, the current state of women in the asset management industry, and what the industry needs to do in order to affect real change towards gender diversity.

On the current state of women in the asset management industry

Only 7 per cent of retail funds in the UK are managed by women, and in the [United States] only 2 per cent of the assets under management are run by women, and that obviously means we don't have the right cognitive diversity when it comes to making decisions, but it puts us in a very extreme position when it comes to making sure we connect with our customer base - half of which should at least be women."

On cognitive diversity

Sometimes people think that if we draw attention to the differences between men and women, we might fuel sexism. I think it's really important to celebrate our differences, and to recognise that together we can be a stronger team.

For example, women obviously produce a lot less testosterone in their bodies, about 10 per cent on average compared with male levels. And that means that attitude to risk is very different. We also are motivated by very different things in life, so our customers, for example, have been analysed and found that women want very different things out of fund management than men. Men are interested in making more money, [whereas] women are more interested in achieving certain things with that money, for example educating their children privately or buying their home outright. So we need to make sure we are aware of those differences.

"It's not just about being nice to women, this is about revolutionising our industry so that we're modern and forward looking."

On industry self-awareness of the issue

I think the [asset management industry] has a little bit of a problem in terms of self awareness about the issue. Superficially, everybody says 'yes, we're really keen on diversity - we want more women involved, but also we want other types of diversity too.' But actually when it comes to how we behave on a day to day basis, i certainly see situations where I'm the only women out of fifteen people in the room, and people aren't aware that these unconscious biases come through. I think we need to make more of a concerted effort.

It seems so obvious to me, and it also seems obvious post the financial crisis, that we need to look at what caused that and often it was one group of people - mainly men - with the winner affect of testosterone creating more risk-taking than you might have from a balanced team. So i think again, it's been a very slow development, and at the moment I don't think we're living and breathing to change, to make this a mainstream issue. It's not just about being nice to women, this is about revolutionising our industry so that we're modern and forward looking.

On actionable solutions

We need some very specific actions targeting women graduates. They've been more put off by the financial crisis - we're tarred with that brush, and it has affected female applicants more than men. So we've got a problem right from the start. I think we need to acknowledge that and do something about it, just as we saw with women on boards.

I do think perhaps as an industry we've often waited until it's been blindingly obvious that we have a problem before we do something about it, and I would like to see more self-critical analysis and say 'enough is enough - we're going to do something about it now. We're not going to have 7 per cent women running the company next year, we're actually going to set a goal that's higher than that.'