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“Fearless Girl” meet “Savvy Investor.”

“Fearless Girl” meet “Savvy Investor.”

Mark.Freed / 16 Oct 2017

news piece on the BBC recently caught my eye regarding a girl and a bull. This was no fairy tale though and reading on I realised that the story had a far bigger tale to tell about ‘investing with impact’ and financial products driving social change.

“Fearless Girl” and “Charging Bull” may sound like native Americans’ names but recently, these two characters have garnered attention for their meaning in modern America.  

The two are bronze statues, having a stand-off in the home of American finance, New York’s Wall Street: the strong, menacing, charging bull found its way here in the late 1980s after the 1987 financial crash as a symbol of America’s power whereas the defiant hands-on-hips girl, facing the bull with her chin in the air is a more recent addition. The asset manager, State Street, and its advertising agency McCann Worldwide commissioned her and she was put in place in March 2017, the night before International Women’s Day.  

State Street’s CMO Stephen Tisdalle has commented in an interview that the statue celebrates the power of women in leadership; cynics argue, however, that it was an advertising gimmick. Below the statue was a plaque promoting one of State Street’s funds - I’ll come back to that later.  

The BBC news piece was reporting on a recent furore over the fact that the results of a State Street 2012 pay audit have been published and the figures just don’t add up for its female leaders. As a financial institution reported to have urged its peers to recruit more women, it looks as though it was a case of “Do as I say, not as I do,” and as a result, the firm is paying 300 women settlements amounting to $5 million. That’s one “Embarrassed Marketer”.

But if every cloud has a silver lining then this one has to be that fund, and its peers. The fund that the “Fearless Girl” was inadvertently advertising was the State Street Gender Diversity Index ETF (short name, aptly, SHE) and State Street is not alone in developing such a product.  

At E2W we strongly believe that greater diversity leads to a healthier bottom line and the numbers are beginning to confirm our belief: greater diversity in an organisation leads to improved financial performance and asset managers are starting to incorporate this into their ‘Investing with Impact’ fund offerings. We already have ethical funds, eco-funds and the like and gender diversity funds follow this trend.  

There are a wealth of organisations striving for greater diversity and gender parity, E2W being one of them alongside the Women in Finance Charter. In addition, these days, there is greater transparency about businesses’ diversity stats, policies and pledges - in fact, Thomson Reuters’ Diversity & Inclusion index revealed just this week, the global top 100 most diverse and inclusive organisations. The information from which this index is derived and the cognisance of organisations like ours, form part of analysts’ research that’s allowing fund managers to create these very specific funds. In doing so, the fund managers and their employers are supporting the likes of E2W in our endeavours, as well as gender parity & other diversity efforts. They’re helping to drive social change.

The “Fearless Girl” may have been an advertising gimmick but she has stayed where she is far longer than the few weeks that was initially planned. She really does represent the future to many people and fund managers see it too. “Fearless Girl” meet “Savvy Investor.” 

 

About Mark Freed:

Who am I? 

I am a man who saw an opportunity 20 years ago to address a critical issue in the financial services sector. Although most thought I was mad, I still run this business that dedicates itself to supporting the financial services careers of women and helping firms collect the gender dividend by employing more of them in UK, USA and Asia.  

What are my targets for this year?

Meeting the public pledge we made to HM Treasury via the Women in Finance Charter to help and support a diverse group of 200 women secure career moves, or either continue or return to their finance services careers.  

Why as a man am I doing this?

Because I'm passionate about the economic and social benefits of gender parity, and have thoroughly enjoyed experiencing these benefits. I'm a committed 'parity-ist’. It's critical men get on board with the agenda.  

Contact me on mark.freed@e2w.co

About E2W: www.e2w.co

We are the go-to place for women in financial services, and have been representing their interests since 2002.

E2W has links to over 7,000 women working in mid and senior positions in London, New York and Singapore. We provide support to members of our community through our membership, offering coaching and career advice – aiming to help women achieve their career aspirations, whatever they may be. We hold business focused events designed to help members collaborate and network. Many of our members have benefitted from priority access to career opportunities.

We are the go-to place for financial institutions to collect the gender dividend. Recognising the business and social case for improved gender diversity within their firms, financial institutions come to E2W to help them recruit more women.

These same institutions are committed to maintaining the talent pool of women in the industry, and because it makes good business sense to do so, outsource small projects and business-as-usual work for our small army of ‘women continuers’ to deliver.

We are proud to support women in their aspirations, and in turn help the industry diversify and benefit from the contribution of talented women.


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