A group of investors representing more than €4 trillion in assets under management has called on companies to take decisive action towards gender equality in the workplace, marketplace, and community where they do business.
The coalition of 66 investors, led by Natixis affiliate Mirova, have called for increased transparency on gender equality, and are urging companies to sign the Women’s Empowerment Principles.
The set of seven principles, established by the UN Global Compact and UN Women, aims to help companies create and implement effective equality initiatives that benefit workers, management, society, and shareholders.
The UN Global Compact is a non-binding pact to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, whilst UN Women works for the empowerment of women.
“Increasingly, the underrepresentation of women in top-level management positions in the private sector is seen as an urgent challenge, not only from a fairness and equality perspective, but also because it may impede performance,” said Mirova chief executive Philippe Zaouati.
“We believe that a company that promotes and takes decisive and concrete actions towards gender equality is a company that will create value not only for its investors, but for all of the stakeholders.”
According to Mirova, although there has been increasing awareness that the achievement of gender equality is a prerequisite for sustainable development, more needs to be done.
The group of investors call on companies to foster the implementation of gender equality performance measurement tools and improve transparency on their actions and outcomes.
A recent report by UK firm PwC found that the gender pay gap in the investment management sector has deteriorated.
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