Women make up 20% of investment professionals in European private equity and venture capital, and 10% at the senior level, according to a report published Monday by Level 20, a non-profit organization promoting gender diversity in private equity.
Level 20 collected data from more than 1,000 private equity and venture capital firms in 13 European countries that had at least 9,000 professionals in 2022.
At the senior level, female representation was highest in Ireland at 28%, which has a small number of firms, followed by France at 15% and Spain at 13%. Seven countries had less than 10% senior-level female representation, according to the Level 20 European gender diversity report.
At the junior level, women make up 34% of investment professionals, and more than 40% in Sweden, Norway and France. "That bodes well for the future" if the sector continues encouraging retention and promotion of women in investment teams, said Pam Jackson, Level 20 CEO and director, in a foreword to the report.
Venture capital firms have more female investment professionals — 22% compared with 18% for private equity — except in Finland where private equity firms have 21% compared with 15% for venture capital.
In both private equity and venture capital, 38% of European firms on average have all-male investment teams. The highest proportion of all-male teams is in Denmark at 65%, followed by the Netherlands at 58%, while the lowest is in France where 18% of firms are all male.
This is the first report from Level 20, whose goal is to provide gender-specific data for general partners and limited partners to benchmark levels of gender representation and identify room for improvement. The report "is a great starting point to measure the progress," Ms. Jackson said.
