Over the past several years, there has been a renewed discussion about the dearth of women in private equity firms and a new energy for making change. Private equity firms recognize that in the shifting landscape of new limited partner players, evolving target company leadership and focus, and a shifting role of women generally in the U.S. economy, long-term success hinges on the recruitment, advancement and retention of women in private equity.
Although the portion of executive-level women in private equity has grown steadily in recent years — with Preqin reporting that women populate 9.4 percent of the upper echelon positions as of 2017 — the progress has not been fast enough for many stakeholders and further improvement seems to be nearly universally desired.
Despite this merely modest expansion of women in private equity, the nine phenomena discussed in this article, and many more trends emerging now, seem to ensure continued growth in the success of women in private equity. To learn more, read our white paper.