Examining Gender-Lens Investing

and outcomes. Uh, She joins us via zoom from the UK. Hey, Suzanne, nice to have you here with Mike Regan and myself. Um, I want to start if I can, with some of the news because you are in the UK, and of course we've been focusing on UK Prime Minister Lis Trust resigning women in leadership roles. How does a development like this impact the narrative around women leaders or how we

think about being gender smart, if at all. Well, I think the reality is that for women or male leaders, the key is to be paying attention to what people really need healthcare, access to affordable energy, access to goods and services that make their lives better. Um, and that gender balanced leadership and leadership that's really paying attention to the stakeholders that are involved is what we need. So, uh, I don't think that liz trust is particular position says

anything about gender lens investing? Well, Susan. If I'm an investor, how how do I approach this issue? Is it a matter of sort of counting up the number of women on boards and in management positions? You know? Is is there more to it? Um? You know? How how do I invest with the gender to lens? Thanks for asking that. So the first is that we're really thinking about where we see women in leadership, governance, employment, supply chains and customers.

And the key is to really be thinking about not only counting. So where do I see a woman on a board? Or where do I see a woman entrepreneur? But really looking at is that entrepreneur creating something of value in the market? Do they really have product market fit? Do they understand how to really value their labor uh and their supply chains? And are they creating good policies

and practices? And it could be male or female laid businesses, But where do you see gender balance and where do you see attentiveness to what the needs are of those different kinds of stakeholders. So in in a bigger company, in a listed company, you might be thinking about the policies and practices. Do they have good care benefits, do they have good leaf benefits, do they have pay equity?

What does it look like from a recruitment, retention, advancement promotion perspective, And what we see and what the market sees is that where you have better gender attention to gender UM and those gender balance practices, you get better financial outcomes and you get more access to talent, you get access to customers, you get access to innovation on

a different level. So as with some document you share with us, and we talked about this a lot that you know, diversity including women and just in general, having you know, a more diverse senior management, diverse boards, it does lead to a better financial outcome. What are some of the numbers that you're finding and some of the work that you're doing UM with investors or the investment community, What are some of the outcomes that you're getting. So

I look at Bloomberg. Bloomberg New Energy Finance came out with a report at the end of looking at where you have again publicly listed companies with better gender diverse leadership and governance, better climate outcomes, better innovation outcomes, and better financial outcomes. Um. And so I think about anyone who is looking in the twenty one century at a climate, who is a climate smart business, and who is really going to be paying attention to the trends and the

indicators that we need. There is going to be looking for gender balance and diversity, equity and inclusion as part of the solution. And if you're from oh, I'm sorry, Susan, if you're you know, if you're an investor sort of assessing the entire investment landscape, is there is there a solution to do this sufficiently, you know, sort of a technology technological way to sort of score gender equality the way you would some of the E. S G factors. Yeah.

So there's a company called Equally, I mean Equally M s C. I uh, and a number of others are are doing this work. Um. And if I think about Equally, which I think is the top at this on this level, they're looking at nineteen variables. So they're looking at again, where do you have not only women on boards, but

where roles are they in. They're looking at women in leadership again, what roles are they in and what's going on with PA equity, including, by the way, bonus compensation, which is an issue that people often will leave out when they're talking about PA equity. UM. When you're looking at employment again, those different factors around the policies and practices. Similarly, with supply chains, do you have a resilient and supply chain where pay is fair, where working conditions are fair? Um?

And in some places obviously there's a legislation and man and mandates around that UM here in the UK Modern Slavery Act, and in other places we don't have that requirement for data collection. UM. From a customer standpoint, you'd be looking at again, where do you have customers who are Where do women customers really value those products and

services that improve their life? So they look at these nineteen variables they compare across four thousand companies UM, and they are feeding their data is feeding about a billion and a half in funds. So you know, we have to run, but hopefully we can catch up with you again in the near future. Suzanne Biegel, co founder of Gender Smart, joining us via zoom from the UK. This is Bloomberg Radio