Today is Women’s Equality Day, a day to raise awareness about the importance of gender equity across the world. As a diverse, women-led, and majority employee-owned firm, we celebrate gender diversity each day through our investment decisions, engagement impact, global partnerships, and alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals. We work collectively to support and engage companies on their commitments to diversity and support of the SDG Five, Gender Equality.
At Boston Common, we are committed to empowering women in the workplace and believe companies who do the same create opportunities and resulting advantages:
- Greater representation of women in senior management, boards, and the overall workforce fosters better decision making.
- Balanced gender policies will allow corporations to attract and retain a broader pool of high-quality employees.
- Empowered female consumers represent an underserved market.
- Sustainable development and social stability require inclusive growth.
We work in collaboration with leading organizations, such as the Thirty Percent Coalition and the Women’s Empowerment Principles, to work toward gender equality and drive change. Boston Common advocates for at least 30% representation of women on Boards of Directors in developed markets including Australia, Canada, Europe and the US, and our portfolios reflect this focus. Gender equality is a core issue we engage our Asian and Emerging Market companies, and we vote against Boards of Directors if there is not at least one woman on the board in many of these markets.
We recently assessed the board composition within some of our portfolios versus that of their respective benchmarks and our strategies significantly outpace the average in gender diversity. A diverse board was considered to have at least 30% women representation:
Boston Common is dedicated to the pursuit of financial return and social change. Our investment approach integrates rigorous financial analysis and insightful ESG research to build diversified portfolios of high-quality, sustainable companies. Gender diversity equity and inclusion are key considerations, as we seek industry leaders – companies that will be successful over the long-term. We are proud to be a part of the effort for gender balance in our workforce, investments, and partnerships.
*Indices: MSCI EAFE, Russell 1000 Value, MSCI ACWI. Certain information ©2019 MSCI ESG Research LLC. Reproduced by permission; no further distribution. The information in this article should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. SDGs refers to the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the Member States of the United Nations by resolution A/RES/70/1 of the General Assembly of 25 September 2015.
