Does Gender Equality Matter to Corporate Performance?

As the world recovers from the financial crisis and its lingering aftermath, there is a growing recognition of a direct relationship between the number women on corporate boards and in the "C" suite of companies, and financial or investment performance. In fact, there nave been numerous articles pondering whether the crisis would have been as deep if more women had been in high-level financial services posts.

Joseph Keefe (left), president and CEO of  Pax World Management LLC, has written a paper, "Gender Equality as an Investment Concept." Pax is known for its socially responsible investing (SRI) portfolios and funds. Keefe, a member of the advisory board which will select the 50 Top Women in Wealth with AdvisorOne this month, writes that, "there is an urgent need for economic and investment strategies that are focused on long-term value creation rather than short-term profits derived from financial engineering." Rather than continue with bubble and bust cycles, investors "are hungry" he says, for strategies which embrace "long-term growth that is sustainable in the true sense of the term—the creation of durable, enduring value."

Keefe asserts that "investing in women—or investing in companies that are committed to gender equality and women's empowerment—is just such a strategy." Citing numerous studies by McKinsey, Catalyst, academics and others, which report that companies with more women than average in senior management have "above average earnings and financial valuations," "higher total shareholder return and return on equity" and were "more profitable than the median" of their peer group, Keefe notes that the bottom line is this: "investing in companies that advance women, in other words, is simply a smart investment strategy."