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Guest comment: How to make it (or not) as a woman in hedge funds

22 August 2007

Anonymous

An (anonymous female) contributor explains why there aren't more women in hedge funds.

I don't have a finance background – I grew up in the country and started out as a trader bidding grain before moving into financial arbitrage. From there I went to Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns as a prop trader before setting up with a colleague in 1998: it was incredibly difficult to get people to put money into that fund. There are plenty of women in the hedge fund industry, but very few who are trading – really taking risks.

I now run a fund of funds as well as an agricultural fund; as a woman, it's hard to raise money for that too. I think it's something buried deep in the subconscious – there's something that prevents people from being totally comfortable about signing their money over to a woman – there are a lot of negatives that are applied. With a man, for example, you might dismiss something as a bad day; with a woman it's seen as a sign of instablility. Women aren't seen as risk takers; somewhere buried deep in the psychology is the notion that people don't trust us with their cash.

From my own perspective, I don't want to be seen as a 'woman' in hedge funds – I just want to be seen as a good manager. My advice to women starting out in hedge funds is: don't take it personally if our culture still has some difficulties. There are plenty of successful and very beautiful women in sales, but if you want to be a trader, don't take it personally – any prejudice is not aimed at you directly; maintain your integrity and excel on your own merits.

Comments (16)

this is pretty retarded. you couldn't raise a fund in 1998 and you think it was because you were a woman! it was the height of the asian (and russian) crisis.

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Comments (16)

  • This lady mentions beautiful women in sales because it's true. I got out of recruiting because I was tired of getting calls from the well known financial institutions in this town confidentially and illegally asking for an attractive blonde for a sales position, experience not terribly relevant. The City is shockingly discriminatory of women, even in 2007. However... there is great demand for female private bankers, because female clients demand it and their numbers are growing. My advice to any female who wants to work in the City is go into wealth management. And be careful what recruiter you use... most of them are crap.

    anon, former recruiter 25 Oct 2007

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  • Why are their looks relevant? Because research shows it is harder for pretty women to be perceived as competent.

    Google for the studies if you like.

    PHDgal 15 Oct 2007

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  • "...certain skills are required (like education and affinity to mathematics etc). To me those skills are gender-specific."

    I'm sorry - what? Mathematical skills are "gender specific"?

    Some of the men writing here do not even question their prejudices. Nice.

    Anonymous 10 Sep 2007

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  • "'other' little issues ..." You know what? Your condescending attitude is a case in point. Don't you think this person should and would know full well what the markets were like back in 1998, if she's a trader? Come on. Give her at least some credit.

    Anonymous 10 Sep 2007

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  • The author of the article seems to ignore the fact that for those positions, for which she claims women are discriminated, certain skills are required (like education and affinity to mathematics etc). To me those skills are gender-specific.

    Softs trader (male) 07 Sep 2007

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  • I would have been hesitant not to say reluctant to give money to anyone setting up a new fund who doeas not have a sound financial or management background.

    There are a number of very successful women in Hedge funds who are highly educated , maths , MBAs, economics etc. Although there are some very successful traders who do not have a university degree, it is rather different running a fund, education and experience in management and not only counts.

    May be the difficulty in attarcting investors has something to do with the author's parent lack of the above credentials and not with the gender issue..

    female senior banker and ex corporate lawyer 28 Aug 2007

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  • I share the original author's point of view. Although I wouldn't speculate on how much gender influenced fund-raising, I did notice that Nicola Horlick's Bramdean also raised a "relatively small amount of capital given her high profile".

    The phrase 'buried deep in the subconscious' is apt. As a female buy-side tech analyst in 1998-2002, I frequently tried to put forth investment cases (mostly sell recommendations!) which my male colleague sometimes had to pick up and reiterate on my behalf to get our portfolio managers to react, who often seemed more inclined to listen to a gung-ho gut-feeling "buy" from a male colleague, than my (boring?) numbers-based cases. Sometimes an argument I put forward would be ignored until it was repeated verbatim by a male colleague.

    However I have also put a lot of this down to my weaker language skills (I was communicating in a foreign language) which affects persuasiveness. Still, when the situation repeats itself over a number of years, one does begin to wonder. Nowadays I have to trust that professionalism and thorough preparation will win through (we just have to be patient bust through those barriers!)

    anon 28 Aug 2007

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  • "Experienced Financier”: you have missed the point. A "pathetic little analyst" i am not, and did indeed have first hand experience of 1998, albeit as a junior at that time. I didn't suggest that markets stopped, but rather that it was extremely difficult for leveraged funds to obtain investment during that period for obvious reasons! Indeed, for the (original) author to cite her experience of scarcity of investment as being due to her gender is questionable, egocentric and ill-informed. Academics are taught to question the popular wisdom, and this is all that i was doing in the instant case. Moving away from “Experienced Financier’s” chest-beating, my original point remains: all the good work done to promote equal opportunities in the workplace are now, in an isolated number of cases, being exploited. Again questioning the popular perception, maybe there are victims of discrimination in the City that don’t fit the stereotype? From personal experience of attempts to manage, hire, fire and remunerate individuals on various desks on which i’ve worked in the City, i can assure readers that the idea of a pure / efficient meritocratic model in the (City) workplace is becoming a rarity.

    fxo man 27 Aug 2007

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  • I think your point is valid.  It is easy for all other commentators to poke fun at the fact that 1998 was a tough year, but, any one that was involved in finance at this time knows that the markets just didn't stop.  And it still does not address the key issue of breaking down mental barriers.  It does not mean that gender should be the defining criteria of success or failure, but, that it can pose an obstacle.  This can apply to both men and women - when's the last time you hired a male babysitter?  Probably never.  Do they exist? - Yes.  Anyone that has ever felt the pangs of discrimination knows this is fact.  I don't think the author was suggesting this is an excuse for poor returns, but, merely some information on a reality.  I have never had to face these obstacles, but, I congratulate the women who do - because they do exist. Don't give up and don't listen to these pathetic little analysts that were likely to be teenagers in 1998 than to live through the realities of 1998, 1999, 2000 and any other year they want to quote.

    Experienced Financier, Male 27 Aug 2007

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  • yep - 1998 part of the article above is a gem

    anon 27 Aug 2007

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