The latest news on workplace equality and gender lens investment
Bespoke Benchmarking Reports to help companies lead the way in gender equality
Companies can now commission a deep dive into their performance and find out how they compare to peer companies as well as to their sector, country and global averages.These reports allow companies to step up to the mark or maintain their lead when it comes to gender equality.
Comprehensive analysis against Equileap’s Gender Equality Scorecard, covering multiple metrics from women’s representation at all company levels, to parental leave, the gender pay gap, policies and more
Detailed company performance compared to 5 selected peer companies
Performance against sector, sub-sector, country and global trends
Bespoke recommendations from Equileap experts on key areas for improvement
Information on which Equileap indices the company might be included into – it is these indices that are used as the underlying for financial products.
Companies will receive a detailed 20+ page report plus an online video consultation with an Equileap Analyst - check out a sample report here.
“This impressive analysis enabled us to compare our efforts to those of our peers. It was useful for spotting areas we need to pay more attention to, both for the benefit of our employees and to maintain our competitive position.” Representative from a company in the consumer staples sector.
“We want to assist and guide companies on their journey towards full gender equality. This new benchmarking report will be an invaluable tool for those looking to make the case for equality, finding out where their company leads the way and where it is lagging behind, as well as providing clarity on how to deliver it.” Diana van Maasdijk, CEO of Equileap
News: GPIF, the world’s largest pension fund, allocates a further USD3.7 billion to gender equality
In early April, GPIF, the world’s largest pension fund with USD1.4 trillion under management, added a new index powered by Equileap data and methodology to its Japan-based gender diversity investment strategy. It also announced it had allocated USD3.7 billion to a fund tracking this index.
The new gender diversity index, called The Morningstar Japan ex-REIT Gender Diversity Tilt Index, builds on our successful collaboration with GPIF and Morningstar which started in December 2020. The first index launched at that time (detailed here) now has approximately $3.4 billion in assets.
The companies in the index are weighted based on the 19 metrics of the Equileap Gender Equality Scorecard. Our Scorecard covers company gender balance at all corporate levels, gender pay gap data, work-life balance, equal parental leave, protecting women in the supply chain and more.
Commenting, Diana van Maasdijk stated: “Thank you, GPIF, for your leadership, your trust in our data and your partnership to close the gender equality gap in Japan and around the world.”
News: Sixth Global Report on Gender Equality: Still more talk than action, but signs of new momentum
Our latest global report revealed progress is far, far too slow with almost no change to the gender pay gap or gender balance year-on-year. Yet, it also revealed some signs of new momentum, with average scores rising 7 percentage points since 2021 - a huge move across a dataset covering more than 102 million employees.
Key data points included:
Only 28 companies globally (less than 1%) have closed their gender pay gap and the majority (78%) do not publish information on pay differences
Just 18 companies in the world achieve gender balance at all company levels as progress stalls with female CEOs at 6% (5% in 2022) and female executives at 20% (18% in 2022)
However, there has been some progress in the last 3 years: ○ Companies offering flexible work locations up 25 percentage points (24% in 2021 to 49% in 2023) ○ Companies publishing an anti-sexual harassment policy up 11 percentage points (49% in 2021 to 60% in 2023)
The highly regarded Parallelle Finance report on gender lens investing came out early March, examining the fourth quarter performance and composition of global gender lens equity and fixed income funds.
Its key findings highlighted that gender lens turned in a positive relative performance with over half of the gender lens equity funds (GLEFs) outperforming the MSCI broad global indexes and that all the US equity funds outperformed the US broad market.
Other key findings included:
Publicly traded GLEFs totalled US$4.8 billion in AUM as of December 2022. AUM growth was 9.4% for the quarter and 20.6% for the calendar year including new funds launched
There are 21 global equity funds and 20 regional equity funds available to individual investors. These are domiciled in the U.S., Canada, the EU, Republic of Korea and Japan. 8 GLEFs have launched in the last 2 months
In addition to GLEF fund outperformance, the global and US Solactive Equileap gender equality indexes outperformed the broad market for the quarter and year
Gender lens fixed income was US$8.0 billion with quarterly AUM flat driven by maturities and a tough macroeconomics environment for new issues.
The Purse podcast: the latest trends in gender equality
In January our CEO Diana van Maasdijk gave an extensive interview to the Purse, a podcast dedicated to changing the conversation for women about money and investing. To hear about the latest trends in gender data, gender equality in the workplace and investing with a gender lens click here.
Investors and index providers need to consider far more than just headline numbers on women in leadership when assessing whether companies are advancing gender equality, according to Diana van Maasdijk, co-founder and CEO of Equileap.
Morningstar Indexes highlighted how companies that are committed to gender equity and inclusion outperformed their broad market counterparts in the last year, representing a rare bright spot among indexes focused on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.
It has been debated for years whether gender diversity helps companies deliver better returns, but a new report from Bank of America says the answer is ‘yes.’
