This compares to the Boards of FTSE 100 companies, where women currently account for 23.5% of positions.

The advisory firm scrutinised the five largest Investment Association sectors and found that women ran just 5% of funds in the UK Equity Income sector and 9% in the Mixed Investment 40-85% sector.

The remaining three sectors under scrutiny revealed an estimated 8% of women fund managers in the Corporate Bond sector; 7% in the UK All Companies sector and 7% in the Global sector.

Jason Hollands, managing director at Tilney Bestinvest, said: “Despite a handful of high-profile women in senior management positions within the industry, front-office positions continue to be male-dominated and dramatically out of line with the proportion of women graduating from universities.  Improving the diversity of the industry so that it draws on the widest pool of talent, requires firms to address this issue when seeking to attract graduate trainees into the industry.”

Tilney Bestinvest highlighted a number of leading female fund managers including Paola Binns (Royal London Sterling Credit), Lesley Duncan (Standard Life UK Ethical), Julie Dean (TM Sanditon UK), and Christine Johnson (Old Mutual Corporate Bond),

It also recognised up and coming names to watch including Anna Lunden (Montanaro European Mid-Cap), Irina Miklavchich (Threadneedle Global Emerging Markets Equity) and Malika Gulabani (F&C Global Bond) and Sophie Bosch (JP Morgan).

Helena Morrissey CBE, CEO of Newton Investment Management and Chair of the Investment Association, said: “The lack of progress is very disappointing but sadly not a surprise. As an industry we need to do a better job explaining what we actually do, including our social purpose, so that new ‘types’ of people might be attracted to fund management. Cognitive diversity is such an important aspect of building great teams – including teams of investors. Gender diversity is a key place to start building those broader perspectives since men and women do think and behave differently – we complement each other. It’s time to redouble our efforts to do something about this.”

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