Investors are concerned that companies are willing to make promises regarding workplace equity, but unwilling to provide corroborating data. In 2018, 84% of the S&P 100 companies made public commitments to gender equality but only 51% disclosed their parental leave policies and a mere 1% published gender pay information.
“We can only improve what we can measure,” Diana van Maasdijk, CEO at Equileap commented. “One of the biggest obstacles to accelerating workplace equity is the lack of transparency from many companies, including on their practices to close the gender pay gap, to provide paid parental leave to both parents, or to recruit without discrimination."
Behind the initiative is As You Sow, a non-profit organization promoting environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building, and innovative legal strategies
Swiss women's fight for gender equality
Switzerland lags behind most other developed country when it comes to gender equality, which was only included in the Swiss Constitution in 1981. The last region (canton) to allow women to vote did it in 1991, abortion was only legalized in 2002 and parental leave for fathers has just been rejected again by the government a few weeks ago.
Hundreds of thousands of women went to strike in Switzerland on Friday 14th June to protest against the inequalities they face on a daily basis, concerned that the culture of sexism is part of everyday life in Switzerland. Nearly 30 years after the first nation-wide equal rights demonstration by women locally, the purple wave is now known to be the biggest political action in Swiss history.
Country Focus: Parental leave in the UK
As the British Government battles to bring parental leave to the public domain, research from Equileap reveals some of the top companies in the UK offering fully paid maternity leave for the longest period of time.
A strong paternity package is essential to combat the so-called “motherhood penalty” – maternity discrimination which sees women who have had children by the age of 33 earning 15 per cent less than their peers who remained childless.
Only 15% of women executive in European companies
This year’s London STOXX Innovate2Invest conference drew attendees from across the investment industry. An opportunity for Equileap to do a gender footprint of the EUROSTOXX 50, one of the major European indices.
The majority of the EURO STOXX 50 companies (58%) do not have a sexual harassment policy in place.
Only 15% of executive level roles in the EURO STOXX 50 companies are held by women.
The top 5 European companies for gender equality are: L’Oréal, Kerin, Société Générale, Schneider Electric and Intesa Sanpaolo.
L'Oreal has a long-standing commitment to righting the gender balance and made it to the top of our global ranking two years in a row. So when they came up with a creative ad campaign earlier this year, this wasn't just a beauty industry leader calling out the lack of women in leader positions - this was reflective of a company that has worked for decades to improve gender equality in their own company culture.
In 2018, L'Oreal scored 71% on the Global Gender Equality Ranking - landing them a second spot. What makes L'Oreal stand out from other companies?
They have gender balance on the board and in senior management, although women remain underrepresented in the executive suite (and overrepresented in the workforce).
L'Oreal offers flexible work arrangements, enabling a better life/work balance, especially for employees who are parents
They publish gender-segregated pay information and have a strategy in place to combat the gender pay gap
L'Oreal recently announced their plan to actively support the International Labor Organization’s adoption of the first international convention on violence and harassment in the workplace, by creating a coalition with other companies, including Kering and Sodexo.
"Companies that score well for gender criteria also tend to be competitively positioned well," Lefkovitz from Morningstar Inc said. "They tend to be financially healthy and less volatile than their peers."
Representing City firms with £7.7tn in assets under management, the association shames the companies for failing to boos the number of women on their boards.
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