From Criterion Institute and Tiedemann Advisors. Tiedemann Advisors and Criterion Institute have developed a detailed guide on how investors can start moving capital in alignment with ending gender-based violence. Their hope is to bring greater awareness to the issue of gender-based violence; inviting more people within the financial services community into that fold to help accomplish systemic change.

From Digital Undivided. The 2021 update to digitalundivided’s ongoing, proprietary research initiative on the state of Black and Latinx women founders.

From McKinsey. A year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, women in corporate America are even more burned out than they were last year—and increasingly more so than men. Despite this, women leaders are stepping up to support employee well-being and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, but that work is not getting recognized. That’s according to the latest Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey, in partnership with Leanin.Org.

From McKinsey. An updated view into gender and racial diversity in financial services—as well as women’s day-to-day work experiences—reveals some progress. But challenges in building an equitable and inclusive workplace persist.

At the beginning of 2021, women in North America remained dramatically underrepresented in the financial-services workforce—particularly at the level of senior management and above. A new industry-specific analysis of data from the latest Women in the Workplace report, a McKinsey collaboration with LeanIn.Org, reveals a leaky pipeline from which women are falling out in greater numbers as they progress up the career ladder, resulting in significant inequality at the top. Consistent with previous years, women in financial services continue to experience a “broken rung” at the first step from entry level to manager—where they are significantly less likely than men to be promoted (for more about our research, see sidebar “About the research and findings”). At the same time, women leaders have taken on the additional responsibilities of supporting employees and investing in diversity and inclusion during the COVID-19 pandemic—but they aren’t being rewarded for this critical work.

From Oxfam. Care work needs to be recognized, shared and invested in now more than ever given that progress on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 – Achieve Gender Equality – is behind target and COVID-19 has created additional challenges with increases in care work, poverty and precariousness that could reverse gains made in gender equality and poverty reduction. Tools that can enable countries to monitor and track progress and hold governments to account on these commitments are critically needed as countries rebuild their economies and address the fallouts from the pandemic.

The Care Policy Scorecard provides a practical tool to assess and track the extent to which government policies related to care are adopted, budgeted for and implemented, and the extent to which they have a transformative effect on care. It can be used at the national or sub-national level. The Scorecard is intended to be used by civil society, government and academia alike. Whether you are a policy maker, work for an NGO or are a researcher, the Scorecard allows you to carry out an assessment of the care public policy environment in your country to understand where there is positive progress, and where there are gaps and room for improvement.

From Big Society Capital. Social inequalities were a dominant concern in 2020, as a result of Covid-19 and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. These events led to overdue conversations around how we address systemic injustice. Big Society Capital has put these discussions front and centre, looking at how they can contribute to greater equality. Within these approaches, embedding an equality and equity lens across how they manage and measure impact, is key. They launched their revised Outcomes Matrix, first developed in partnership with New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), Social Value UK, Investing for Good and Outcomes Star, and is hosted by Good Finance. It has been an important practical impact management and measurement tool within the social impact investment sector. The tool has helped more than 40,000+ Good Finance users to plan and measure their social impact. With this redesign, they aim to embed an equality and equity lens in the way organisations measure outcomes. Ensuring that reducing inequality is at the forefront of conversations, when organisations are managing and measuring impact. In this blog post they explore how they went about the redesign process, the three key changes we have made and why.

From Hogan Lovells. This Guide is aimed at General Counsels who advise Boards on a regular basis. It looks at the legal considerations behind ethnicity pay gap reporting, in particular the data protection and employment concerns, that can become a perceived barrier to publishing these statistics.

It also seeks to debunk the legal myths that may prevent organisations from publishing their reports, and analyses the anatomy of a really powerful ethnicity pay gap report. The Guide is designed to start a crucial conversation about how to innovate in an area of policy and law that is in flux, beyond the obligations that have been in place for gender pay gap reporting since April 2017.

From XOCO Unlimited. This preview version of XOCO’s Action Guide for Investing in the Education of Adolescent Girls provides an overview of the opportunities available for investments in girls’ education, especially in the Global South.

From Xoco Unlimited. This toolkit presents the impact of the pandemic on women by evaluating the relationship of employment, healthcare, and digital literacy to gender-based violence (GBV).

From Morgan Stanley. Building a truly inclusive society will require concerted action across governments, nonprofits, corporations and investors. We increasingly understand the benefits of advancing racial equity, but aren’t necessarily aware of the available tools for investors to pursue this goal. Whether considering restriction screening, promoting diverse ownership and representation, or delving into shareholder engagement and reporting, advancing racial equity through investment capital is a journey of discovery, understanding and action.

From EQUALS. ​​​ITU and UNU-CS have been conducting research since May 2016 to map projects that address the gender digital divide. The first output of this project is the Gender Digital Inclusion Map, an interactive visualisation tool which can be consulted to discover initiatives that are working towards bridging the gender digital divide around the world. The aim has been to identify key organizations working in this domain, and to eventually understand what constitutes best practice among such projects. This research is part of EQUALS, the Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age.

From Project Implicit. Here you will have the opportunity to assess your conscious and unconscious preferences for over 90 different topics ranging from pets to political issues, ethnic groups to sports teams, and entertainers to styles of music. At the same time, you will be assisting psychological research on thoughts and feelings.

Sessions require 10-15 minutes to complete. Each time you begin a session you will be randomly assigned to a topic. Try one or do them all! At the end of the session, you will get some information about the study and a summary of your results. We hope that you will find the experience interesting and informative.

From Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The trustees and staff of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund express their commitment to the values of diversity and equity in the Fund’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement adopted in 2010. This commitment recognizes the Fund’s moral obligation to do its part to address past and current injustices to groups that have been historically disadvantaged and socially, politically, and economically marginalized. Their commitment is shaped by our values, our work, and the philanthropic traditions of the Rockefeller family.

From Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The purpose of this policy is to guide the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Board of Trustees, Investment Committee, and Outsourced Chief Investment Office (Agility) in effectively and prudently managing, monitoring, and evaluating the Fund's investment portfolio. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has worked over the last decade to align its financial portfolio with its programmatic interests in democratic practice, peacebuilding, and sustainable development. The Fund’s Mission-Aligned Investment efforts include divestment from fossil fuels, impact investments, investing using environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, and leveraging shareholder rights.

From the Urban Energy Justice Lab at University of Michigan’s School for Environment & Sustainability. At a moment when climate action and clean energy programs are expanding rapidly, it is imperative that access to the benefits of these programs are distributed equitably, particularly for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) and frontline communities historically overburdened by the costs and pollution of our energy system. Historically, the energy sector echoes racial and class disparities in housing, education, and economic development. Despite the semblance of uniform utility rates and ubiquitous service, the negative outcomes of power shut-offs and cost burdens— and the positive benefits of weatherization, retrofits, and renewable energy— are not evenly distributed.

The Energy Equity Project will create a framework for measuring equity across energy efficiency and clean energy programs among utilities, state regulatory agencies, and other practitioners, while engaging and centering BIPOC and frontline communities. An equity measurement framework, launching in beta form in 2022, will serve environmental and climate justice advocates, practitioners, regulatory agencies, and utilities to drive more equitable investments and outcomes in energy efficiency, distributed generation and storage (i.e. solar + batteries), demand response, electrification, and electric vehicle infrastructure.

From Duke University. This program took place March 11-13, 2019 and September 9-11, 2019 at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. This 3-day intensive course is designed to help you navigate the emerging world of gender smart investing so that you can develop tangible strategies and practice to more easily and quickly integrate gender smart investing as part of an overall investing practice. Two of the top globally recognized pioneers in gender lens and impact investing (Suzanne Biegel, Catalyst at Large and GenderSmart Investing, and Cathy Clark, CASE i3 Initiative on Impact Investing at Duke University) will lead the training, sharing their insights and working with you on the key practices of gender lens investing.

From the Global Business Certification Standard for Gender Equality. EDGE is the leading global assessment methodology and business certification standard for gender equality. It measures where organizations stand in terms of gender balance across their pipeline, pay equity, effectiveness of policies and practices to ensure equitable career flows as well as inclusiveness of their culture. EDGE stands for Economic Dividends for Gender Equality and is distinguished by its rigor and focus on business impact.

The 2X Challenge serves as one instrument in the DFI toolkit to direct capital towards women’s development. The 2X Challenge calls the G7 and other DFIs to collectively commit and mobilize $15 billion that provide women in developing country markets with improved access to leadership opportunities, quality employment, finance, enterprise support and products and services that enhance economic participation and access.

DFIs can use the 2X Challenge to direct capital towards women, pre- or post-investment by:

• Encouraging investees to collect data on women employees and consumers

• Measuring the development impact of investing with and in women, over time

• Making a business case for investing with and in women

Fulfilling one of the five criteria makes an investment 2X eligible.

From ICRW. The sector-specific Gender Materiality Maps outline where gender integration is most “material” for businesses, by sector.

Identifying where and how gender may be material in a sector helps companies understand and assess gender-related risks and opportunities that are reasonably likely to impact their financial condition or operating performance.

The Gender Materiality Maps drew inspiration from the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Materiality Map, an interactive tool for corporate and investor use that identifies and compares disclosure topics and their financial materiality across different industries.