Gender Equality ETF, an impactful part of ESG investing.
A long-term performance analysis reveals a clear outperformance of gender-diverse companies versus the broader market.
Since 2012, the Solactive Equileap Global Gender Equality 100 Leaders Index, explicitly designed to track the leading companies from a sustainability and gender-diversity point of view, has outperformed the standard benchmark (MSCI World) by 152 basis points per annum. And on the other side, as shown by McKinsey in 2015, companies in the bottom quartile for both gender and ethnic or cultural diversity were almost 30% less likely to achieve above-average profitability.
Further analysis suggests several reasons for this. Achieving gender balance at all levels of an organization heightens a company's collective intelligence1 and its ability to effectively navigate a wide spectrum of complex situations. Competitiveness also depends on the ability to recruit and retain a diverse workforce in order to be able to meet the needs of a broad client base. A high degree of gender diversity is indicative of a well-run organization with the necessary policies in place that allow it to attract the right talent and create the conditions for higher productivity.
These contributing factors to the outperformance of gender-balanced companies were confirmed by a recent study from the UBS GWM Chief Investment Office (CIO), which corroborates similar findings from previous studies, for example by the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The UBS analysis also showed that more gender balanced boards generally applied greater levels of oversight and monitoring, substantiating an observation in an MSCI ESG report, which found that gender balanced boards in developed economies demonstrated lower levels of bribery, corruption and fraud1.
These findings suggest that the outperformance of gender-diverse companies is rooted in concrete causes. Investors can now directly capture the potential of gender balance with the UBS Gender Equality ETF, tracking the Solactive Equileap Global Gender Equality 100 Leaders Index. The index includes the top 100 companies chosen on the basis of 19 gender criteria. It also filters according to liquidity and ESG criteria and ensures a geographical balance.
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