Women struggle to make it to the top ranks of hedge fund and private equity sectors, according to a recent study.

The alternatives assets industry in areas such as hedge funds and private equity are dominated by men and the representation of women becomes lower among boardroom roles, a survey by Preqin, the research tracking the sector, said. 

Just under one in five employees at fund management firms are female. The highest proportion of women is seen among junior employees, where they constitute 29 per cent of the workforce. However, in each asset class the representation of women falls according to seniority, and overall senior alternative assets staff consist of 11 per cent women. 

In the same way, women are best represented in investor relations/marketing teams, as high as 53 per cent at venture capital firms. The rate of women in investment teams is much smaller, as low as 10 per cent at hedge funds. The board of directors for an average alternative assets fund, meanwhile, only comprises 5 per cent female members.

With women accounting for more than half of the human population, and frequent talk about the need for the investment and wealth industry to widen its range of clients and advisors, such statistics may reinforce notions that the sector is one for "Alpha" male personality types associated in public perceptions with Hollywood films about finance such as Wall Street or The Big Short. However, it appears the hedge fund sector, which has suffered from perceptions of modest results in recent years, could be missing a trick by not promoting more women. For example, there have been claims from research that a more diverse range of fund managers can achieve improved investment returns over the long term. About two years ago, Meredith Jones, author of Women of the Street: Why Female Money Managers Generate Higher Returns (And How You Can Too), argues that women can outperform men in running money.

A survey published in 2014 said hedge funds run by women performed better than their male rivals in 2013, according to the annual survey by Rothstein Kass, and have soundly beaten them over six years. (Source: Daily Telegraph, 16 January 2014.) The study said the small number of female-run funds returned 9.8 per cent during the 10 months from January to November last year, compared to the HFRX Global Hedge Fund index which only managed 6.13 per cent.