While some rating agencies have created measures to identify companies suitable for a gender lens portfolio – for example, Sustainalytics has a gender equality index – others have very little on gender at all. Some rating agencies seem to base gender equity performance on the number of women on a company’s board or its in-house policies on diversity and discrimination.In short, there is little-to-no substantive information available to allow investing with a gender lens. And why is that?
The absence of data related to gender implies women-friendly policies are not viewed as affecting the performance or risk of companies.
It is time for potential investors to start demanding data be collected. Once that happens, rating agencies will send a message to companies that gender equity matters. As long as investors stay silent, progress will remain slow.