Fixed Income Gender Lens

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.

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.