How a Better Gender Balance Boosts Profits

From Robeco. RobecoSAM researchers measured the contribution of women in the workplace as part  of analysis of a dataset of over 20,720 observations collected through the SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment from 2013-2018. 

The SAM CSA is an annual assessment which uses a scoring methodology to assess the environmental, social and governance (ESG) characteristics of the companies taking part. Gender equality is measured using a variety of metrics, beyond counting the number of women who serve on the company’s board.

On the face of it, the results were only mildly encouraging at first. An increase in gender diversity on corporate boards was a positive finding, but the increase at management level was minimal, rising from 24% in 2013 to 26% in 2018. Furthermore, data for the total workforce over the same time period shows little change.

But then drilling down into the data using regression analysis, the research looked at the presence of women at different corporate levels, and the link with firm fundamentals. Dividing the data into quantiles enabled confirmation of the link between financial performance at every level: corporate board, management and total workforce.