The evidence is in and it’s clear — gender equity is good for investment, good for businesses, and good for society.
You may have seen research that shows that the financial returns of companies with three or more women on their board are significantly higher than companies that have no women on their board. Or you may have read that inclusive work environments “are associated with better organizational outcomes and that gender diverse teams at all levels make better decisions”. Or perhaps you saw the report calculating that if women play an identical role to men in the labor force, as much as $28 trillion could be added to global annual GDP by 2025.
These reports help demonstrate that gender equity is not only a moral obligation, but also a critical business consideration that companies and investors should not ignore. With the evidence mounting and investors chasing any hint of alpha, one might expect considering gender in investment analysis to be commonplace. Hardly. Despite the growth of the “gender-lens” investing movement and the proliferation of publicly-listed products that screen companies based on gender criteria, considering gender as part of an investment process is still far from a mainstream practice, or even a mainstream idea. Why? In the private impact investing markets we found two issues holding investors back:
- The business case still needs to be built in the private markets.
- Investors are confused about how to apply a gender-lens.
This report is intended to address these two challenges with data from our portfolio and lessons learned from our experience executing a gender-lens investment strategy.
Download the full report here: Calvert Impact Capital Gender Report
