Prioritizing Gender
Investor Brief | June 2022
Lauren Compere, Head of Stewardship & Engagement
Companies are mistakenly viewing gender solely in the context of DEI efforts. Investor approaches tend to focus only on board or leadership diversity. Even across initiatives focused on human rights or on the S in ESG, gender is addressed implicitly at best. Investors thus have an opportunity to drive meaningful change in gender equity and diversity. Recognizing this opportunity, Boston Common developed a full value chain approach to engaging companies on Workplace Racial Equity in 2020. In 2022, we are also prioritizing gender across the full value chain – workplace, supply chain, products & services, and community.
We have developed new Investor Guidance for Prioritizing Gender that identifies five key questions to ask companies through focused engagement and essential steps that all investors should take in urging companies to commit, evaluate & act, and disclose more on gender over time. We are activating this guidance across our investment, stewardship, and engagement activities through 2023, beginning with an investor statement that provides input to the European Commission’s Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence by calling out critical gender-specific approaches, which are currently lacking. Please read on at the links below and learn more about this vital work.
