The Future World GIRL Fund
Gender inequality is one of the biggest issues of our time – and one that generates so much frustration. Rather than feeling trapped or despondent, let’s do something about it. That’s why we’re excited to launch the Future World GIRL Fund, which empowers all of us to use our money to help improve gender diversity in the UK.
The fund works by favouring those companies which have achieved higher levels of gender diversity.
When we invest in women’s success, we are investing in the success of businesses.
Say hello to the new Future World GIRL Fund
We believe the best business decisions are made when there’s a diverse group of people debating and challenging them. That’s why the Future World GIRL Fund focuses on UK companies that are committed to gender diversity at board level and beyond. Increasing gender diversity means different perspectives get heard, which can lead to better outcomes for the customer, company and society. It’s not just the right thing to do; it makes business sense. #EmpowerWomen
Girl fund
Diversity should be seen as the solution, not another problem to solve
Don’t just take our word for it: hear key voices on gender diversity:
How does the fund work?
The Future World GIRL fund invests in companies based on how they are performing against four measures of gender diversity. We take around 350 of the largest companies in the UK and give them a score between 0-100 based on:
- The percentage of women on the board of directors
- The percentage of women who are executives
- The percentage of women who are managers
- The percentage of women who are in the workforce
Companies must achieve a 30% representation of women in these four measures before they receive a positive diversity score.
We will engage with low-scoring companies to discuss how they can improve their gender diversity.
A new kind of score
The Future World GIRL fund tracks our newly created ‘Solactive L&G Gender in Leadership UK Index’.
We apply our proprietary gender diversity scores to the index, which forms our original investment universe, ‘tilting’ the index in favour of high-scoring companies and away from low-scoring ones.
Diversity champions for almost a decade
We have been talking about the benefits of diversity with companies, recruitment agencies and at a higher policy level since 2011.
We’ve also been long supporters of the 30% Club, The Diversity Project and a signatory to the Women in Finance Charter.
Here are some key milestones in our gender diversity work.
2010 - We became a contributing supporter to the Davies Report and Hampton-Alexander Review.
2015 - We started voting against Chairs of all-male boards at FTSE 100 companies.
2016 - We started voting against Chairs of all-male boards at FTSE 250 companies.
2018 - We started voting against FTSE companies with less than 25% female board members.
Together we can own our world
Please remember the value of your investment and any income from it may fall as well as rise and is not guaranteed. You may get back less than you invest.
References
- https://www.pwc.co.uk/economic-services/WIWI/women-in-work-index-2018.pdf
- https://www.credit-suisse.com/corporate/en/articles/news-and-expertise/higher-returns-with-women-in-decision-making-positions-201610.html
- https://cebr.com/reports/cebr-research-with-involve-on-the-value-of-diversity/
- https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/11-01-2018/sfr247-higher-education-student-statistics/qualifications Reference is not specific to fund management but in relation to the issue in general
- https://www.glassdoor.com/press/twothirds-people-diversity-important-deciding-work-glassdoor-survey-2/
