Criterion Institute, with the generous support of Dreilinden, has released “Investing with an LGBTQI Lens: Rethinking Gender Analysis Across Investing Fields,” a new guide on investing to further the rights and empowerment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) individuals.

We live in a moment where cultural norms, behaviors, and laws related LGBTQI individuals are changing significantly around the globe. On the one hand, there are expanded freedoms for our sexual orientations and gender identities. On the other, persecution and discrimination continue, and in some places are on the rise.

Our guide is an invitation to a range of individuals and institutions—including asset holders, asset managers, philanthropic funders, and gender lens investors—to think about how finance, as a system of power, can be engaged to address the marginalization and oppression of LGBTQI people. The guide also makes the case that incorporating an LGBTQI lens increases the ability of all investors to understand how LGBTQI considerations are material to investment decision making, helping them to uncover hidden opportunities and undervalued risks. Drawing on our 15 years of work building the field of gender lens investing, we describe the ideas, activities, people, and organizations who can participate in building a parallel investing field that achieves true equality for people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions.

From the Knight Foundation. This report captures insights from a new study about the state of diversity in the U.S. asset management industry. Professor Josh Lerner (Harvard Business School) and Bella Research Group led the research, building on a similar study published in May 2017. While numerous studies have documented the lack of diversity among asset managers and asset management firm employees, the current research contributes a new perspective by analyzing the diversity of ownership of asset management firms as well as any performance differences between diverse-owned and non-diverse owned asset mangers.

From the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The report projects a tremendous boost to the United States’ workforce and consumer spending when organizations take the necessary steps to advance racial equity. Led by Ani Turner, co-director of Sustainable Health Spending Strategies at Altarum, researchers analyzed data from public and private sources, including the U.S. Census, Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, Brandeis University and Harvard University. Their methodology included applying established models to estimate the economic impact of the disparities faced by people of color.

From Cambridge Associates. Many institutional investors have long sought to promote social equity through grant making and other philanthropic endeavors. With the field of impact investing maturing, these institutions are now increasingly seeking investment solutions to accomplish the same goal. Yet this effort raises important questions: What is social equity investing? What does it look like in practice? And how do social equity investments fit in a portfolio?

In this paper the authors review the current state of social equity in the United States, highlight eight core social equity issue areas, and discuss the lessons we’ve learned in constructing portfolios with these investments. They define social equity investing as investments to promote equal opportunity and access for all, regardless of background, but they understand that many investors have different definitions. While investors need to be mindful of risks, the authors believe that investments can be made to promote a social equity impact agenda across the portfolio.

From Confluence Philanthrophy. “It’s About Time: A Call to Advance Racial Equity in the Investment Industry” shares what Confluence Philanthropy heard from diverse investment managers in a yearlong listening journey. That exploration culminated in a racial equity track with the appropriate theme of Truth and Transparency at Confluence Philanthropy’s 9 th Annual Practitioners Gathering in March 2019. This report also recommends ways investors can begin embracing racial equity in the investment process. In addition, it invites you to join in Confluence Philanthropy’s commitment to welcome, honor, and uphold the very premise of diversity–a core component of any well-balanced investment portfolio.

From CFA Institute. As one chief diversity officer at a financial service company said, “How do we ensure our leaders are educated on diversity & inclusion (D&I) and are clear on the expectations on them? We ask leaders to move the needle, but we don’t give them the tools.” What can we learn from companies that have succeeded? CFA Institute set out to answer this and other questions in a series of industry workshops that formed the basis for this paper. Through a series of workshops, firms were able to openly discuss what they are doing, what’s been working, and what comes next in the field of diversity & inclusion. From these workshops, CFA Institute devised a list of 20 concepts that repeatedly came up and the recommended actions for how to use them.

From the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). IUCN have compiled some key data and talking points at the intersection of gender and climate change: what is the issue, why is it important, and what can be done?

From UNICEF and Criterion Institute. Finance is one of the most powerful systems on earth. This opportunity brief from UNICEF and Criterion Institute explores how gender-based violence (GBV) in emergencies can be understood as material to investment decision-making. Through a series of research literature reviews and expert interviews, UNICEF and Criterion Institute identify when the costs of government inaction on GBV prove most relevant to market stability and the potential for financial return. The research focuses on four investment vehicles and approaches relevant to post-disaster financing: sovereign debt, blended finance, climate finance, and project finance investments. What’s more, it examines potential leverage points before, during, and after emergencies where the structuring or movement of capital could improve investment decision-making and reduce GBV vulnerability.

From The ImPact. This piece from The ImPact (co-authored by Suzanne Biegel) offers succinct, actionable insights for families interested in investing with a gender lens. Over a dozen interviews with gender lens investors provided wisdom for this publication about how and why families use gender as a factor of analysis in their investment decisions. Readers can use their experiences and stories to understand and seize the diverse opportunities for considering gender in investment decision-making. This report offers information for families at all starting points, ranging from families who want to use a gender lens to spot potential opportunities for market outperformance, families who want to use gender as the central focus of their investment thesis, and those who want to blend it into an existing impact strategy.

From Promundo. State of the World’s Fathers is a globally recognized, biennial report and advocacy platform aiming to change power structures, policies, and social norms around care work and to advance gender equality.

The third State of the World’s Fathers report reveals new research on men’s caregiving from 11 countries, with additional cross-country analysis of data from over 30 countries. It calls for men’s uptake of their full share of the world’s childcare and domestic work – across all societies and relationships – to advance gender equality.

From the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). The ANDE Brazil chapter and the IDS created a joint knowledge brief to share lessons and innovations from the Brazilian ecosystem on bringing a gender lens to supporting Brazilian SGBs. It focuses on four key topics to catalyse thought leadership on gender inclusion and investing in Brazil: understanding biases; recognising gender "intersects" with diversity issues; linking to investors; and attracting and retaining women in entrepreneur support programs.

From the Kellogg Foundation. This report seeks to expand the narrative associated with advancing racial equity by adding a compelling economic argument to the social justice goal. Beyond an increase in economic output, advancing racial equity can translate into meaningful increases in consumer spending and federal, state, and local tax revenues, and decreases in social services spending and health-related costs.

From the CFA Institute. This report asks: Why is the industry stuck when it comes to diversity and inclusion (D&I)? What can be done to change it? What is working and what isn’t when it comes to recruiting, promoting, and retaining top talent? How do firms attract a diverse candidate pool and successfully recruit diverse candidates? What does an “inclusive” work culture look like? Have we moved beyond D&I as a “check the box” initiative?

From Cambridge Associates. Many institutional investors have long sought to promote social equity through grant making and other philanthropic endeavours. With the field of impact investing maturing, these institutions are now increasingly seeking investment solutions to accomplish the same goal. Yet this effort raises important questions: What is social equity investing? What does it look like in practice? And how do social equity investments fit in a portfolio?

In this paper Cambridge Associates review the current state of social equity in the United States, highlight eight core social equity issue areas, and discuss the lessons we’ve learned in constructing portfolios with these investments.

From Confluence Philanthropy. It’s About Time: A Call to Advance Racial Equity in the Investment Industry shares what Confluence Philanthropy heard from diverse investment managers in a yearlong listening journey. That exploration culminated in a racial equity track with the appropriate theme of Truth and Transparency at Confluence Philanthropy’s 9th Annual Practitioners Gathering in March 2019. This report also recommends ways investors can begin embracing racial equity in the investment process. In addition, it invites you to join in the Confluence commitment to welcome, honour, and uphold the very premise of diversity–a core component of any well-balanced investment portfolio.

From the World Bank. This report finds that while important progress toward gender equality has been made in the past decades, inequalities linked to gender norms, stereotypes, and the unequal distribution of housework and childcare responsibilities persist. Lifetime events such as marriage and parenthood bring substantial changes in time use among women and men. This paper updates and reinforces the findings of previous studies by analyzing gender differences in the allocation of time among market work and unpaid domestic work. Results from the analysis of time use patterns in 19 countries of different income levels and from various regions suggest that women specialize in unpaid domestic and care work and men specialize in market work. The paper employs propensity score matching to assess the marriage and parenthood "penalty" on time use patterns over the lifecycle. The findings indicate that women of prime working age are the most penalized on a host of measures, including labor market participation, unpaid domestic work, and leisure time. Men are not necessarily penalized for, and sometimes benefit from, marriage or parenthood.

From Oxfam. Across Africa, ambitions to achieve inclusive and sustainable development are being undermined by inadequate investment in the care economy. Women and girls are providing millions of hours of unpaid care and domestic work (UCDW) – a provision which props up the economy and underpins society, yet remains under-recognized, undervalued and under-invested in.

While inattention to care policy and the unequal distribution of UCDW has stalled gender equality in every country globally, this brief focuses on the specific barriers that UCDW creates for sustainable development in Africa. It explains how investing in quality, accessible and affordable public services and infrastructure in Africa can address heavy and unequal UCDW and unlock progress across multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The brief draws on research and programming experience from Oxfam’s Women’s Economic Empowerment and Care (WE-Care) programme. Active since 2014, the programme addresses UCDW as a key driver of gender inequality and is implemented in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and the Philippines. This paper draws on WE-Care initiatives in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe, and presents evidence-based solutions from these five countries to address UCDW across the continent.

From Oxfam and Unilever. Oxfam and Unilever have joined forces to share complementary learning and insights gleaned from working on unpaid care and domestic work with communities and consumers around the world, and with businesses and brands to share emerging good practice and evidence.

From OECD. Using time use data, this policy brief analyses the impact of gender gaps in time devoted to unpaid care activities on gender gaps in labour outcomes.

1. The first section provides an overview of gender inequalities in caring responsibilities.

2. The second section shows that gender inequalities in unpaid care work are related to gender gaps in labour outcomes, such as labour participation, wages and job quality.

3. The third sections assesses the key role of discriminatory social institutions for understanding gender inequalities in unpaid care work.

4. Finally, the fourth section proposes policy recommendations to lift the constraints on women’s time by both reducing the burden of unpaid care work borne by women as well as redistributing the caring responsibilities between women and men, and between the family and the State.

From IFC. A key barrier to female labour force participation is the lack of access to childcare. Recognizing the impact that childcare provision has on women’s employment, countries such as Brazil, India, and Jordan have unveiled policies requiring companies to provide childcare options. Even when not driven by regulatory compliance, companies can support childcare and reap business benefits. Much has been written about the need for investment in childcare, yet there is a dearth of information on what companies can do to address their employees’ childcare needs and how companies might benefit as a result.

This report highlights innovative approaches that companies across sectors and regions have taken to better meet their employees’ childcare needs. Featuring 10 case studies, the report shows how companies can choose from a range of childcare options, from on-site crèches to partnerships with governments and local childcare providers. As a result, companies can better attract and retain qualified staff—helping boost employee productivity and strengthening the bottom line.