For public sector GLI equity and fixed income offerings to meaningfully reflect – and capture the benefits of – gender diversity at the company level, investment criteria should encompass inclusive gender equality metrics beyond WIL. Women’s representation at all managerial levels is the key to the leadership pipeline. Investors need to be able to measure inclusive gender equality across a range of data points, including pay parity, a company’s commitment to supplier diversity, the provision of corporate benefits in support of caregivers, and true inclusivity in the work environment. The inclusiveness and safety of products and services also needs to be assessed. Increased data availability is key to investing in companies making progress on broad-based inclusive gender equality, with the glaring need for pay data leading the charge.
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How University Endowments Enhance Community Impact through Local Investments
ESG investing has risen among college and university endowment funds in the wake of increased stakeholder demands for sustainable investments as well as greater community impact. A landmark 2020 study by the Intentional Endowment Network demonstrated that higher education endowments are successfully meeting or exceeding objectives through mission-aligned investing.
Many colleges and universities choose to redirect endowment investments locally in order to create greater community impact beyond the boost they bring communities’ economies. University endowments have taken several paths to making a difference at home.
The above is a excerpt from a piece by Marypat Thenell Smucker featured on TheImpactivate.com.
Q1 2021 Overview – Viewing Technology Stocks through a Gender Lens
Ample research demonstrates that companies with higher levels of women in leadership (WIL) report superior performance on a range of metrics. Founded on WIL and other gender equity criteria, the 29 gender lens equity funds (GLEFs) available to individual investors include 13 global equity funds and 16 regional equity offerings. As of 31 March 2021, AUM for the GLEF group is $3.28 billion.
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ESG Efforts toward Gender Equity Help Boost Representation for Women in STEM
Enduring obstacles have exacerbated many of the already long-standing gender gaps affecting women in STEM education and training, technology workplaces, and venture funding.
Despite programming’s origin as a woman-dominated field, the share of bachelor’s degrees women earned in computer science declined from 27% in 1998 to 20% in 2018. In the workforce, women’s representation in computing and mathematical roles has remained at about 25% since 2007. Notably, women made up just 19% of software engineers in 2019.
Women who found technology-related startups face their own stubborn gap. Funding for sole female founders represented just 2.4% of all venture capital in 2020, down from a paltry peak of 3.4% in 2019.
These figures indicate a wider need for women-focused technology education, training, innovation, and investment. Yet narrowing these gaps in representation hinges on access to a stronger ecosystem of support overall—highlighting the efforts of organizations and ESG investors seeking impact in gender equity.
The above is a excerpt from a piece by Marypat Thenell Smucker featured on TheImpactivate.com.
Takeaways from Equileap’s 2021 Report: Gender Equity Progress and Challenges
COVID-19 brought unequal impacts to women and intensified already widening inequities. The pandemic drove acute job losses in lower-paying service roles, which are largely staffed by women. Women in all industries and levels also disproportionately downshifted their careers to take on increased caregiving burdens as schools and daycares closed.
Against this backdrop, Equileap, a leader in corporate gender equity research, issued its fourth annual Gender Equality Global Report and Ranking in March 2021. Utilizing publicly available data and policy information to assign gender equality scores, the report summarizes key findings and 2020 gender lens metrics by country and sector.
The above is a excerpt from a piece by Marypat Thenell Smucker featured on TheImpactivate.com.
Gender Lens Investing: Diverse Corporate Leadership Outperforms
A widely documented body of research has demonstrated that companies with higher levels of women in leadership (WIL) have superior performance in several areas, including higher returns on capital, better productivity, and higher stock price performance. During the initial years after the financial crisis of 2008-9, financial and economic research established the positive performance impact of female participation at the board and senior management levels of large corporations. Since then, a number of studies have consistently shown the financial and performance benefits of gender diversity in corporate leadership – and have demonstrated that companies who lag on diverse leadership also lag in performance. The following is an overview of key studies in this area.
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