(Yicai Global) March 8 -- China has witnessed the rise of the female fund manager in the past 25 years, with women now managing approximately 55 percent of the country’s public equity assets, according to the latest data.

More than a quarter of China’s fund managers are female, at 888 out of 3,360, and they are in charge of around CNY14.6 trillion (USD2.1 trillion) worth of assets, according to Wind Information, citing statistics valid as of March 6. And of these, 22 are particularly successful with CNY10 billion of assets under management.

The 888 female fund managers work for 160 fund firms, and of these, 11 companies employ more than 15 fund managers each. There are 312 female fund managers working at the country’s top 20 fund companies in terms of size, as per the rankings at the end of 2022.

In a male-dominated industry, most of the women are relative newcomers to the field, with only 53 having worked in the industry for more than 10 years, according to Yicai Global research. Some 60 percent have been in their jobs for between one and six years, while 18 percent took up their positions within the last year.

Women tend to be more cautious when investing, putting an emphasis on risk management, and are more willing to pursue value for money, a female fund manager told Yicai Global.

Compared to men, who are more focused on tech-heavy sectors such as electronics and computers, most of the women prefer consumer goods such as pharmaceuticals as well as food and beverage when it comes to investing.

This may be because women are more sensitive to consumer trends, said the fund manager. But in practice, she also pays attention to popular sectors such as new energy and will adjust the weighting according to the actual situation, she added.

Tong Lan, a manager at the Aegon-industrial Trend Investment Fund, told Yicai Global that she rarely recommends companies with high valuations, but rather pays more attention to managing the downward space of stock prices.

Editors: Shi Yi, Kim Taylor