Women are slowly but steadily gaining a foothold in the private equity industry, according to Preqin.
The data provider found that women held 12.6% of senior positions at private equity firms, up from 11.7% a year ago.
Infrastructure, real estate, and venture capital firms all saw increases in the proportion of women in senior roles. The largest jump occurred in real estate, where the number of female senior employees jumped from 9.7% in 2015 to 11.9% today.
Source: Preqin’s “Women in Private Equity“
Buyout firms, meanwhile, experienced a second consecutive year of decline in female leadership, with women making up just 7.3% of senior roles this year.
Large firms also tended to employ more women in senior roles. Women constituted 15.3% of high-level employees at firms with more than 20 positions—an increase from 13.5% last year. Preqin attributed this rapid growth to “a concerted effort among some high-profile firms to promote and recruit more women into senior positions.”
On the opposite end of the spectrum, female leaders made up just 9.6% of senior positions at firms with five or fewer executive roles, or less than one per firm. This suggests there are “still a sizeable number of smaller firms with no female senior employees,” Preqin said.
Asia-based private equity firms remained the best employers of female leaders, with women holding 11.9% of senior roles—the same figure as last year. North American firms, meanwhile, employed women in 10.5% of senior positions, an increase from 9.8% last year.
Related: The Missing Women of Asset Management; Women in Alts Find No Favor Despite High Performance; Where Are All the Female Private Equity Managers?