Improving the Gender Equality Funds Ranking System
To power Gender Equality Funds and help you invest your values, we combine two detailed data sources: company gender equality data from Equileap and mutual fund holdings data from Morningstar.
The results show there's still a long way to go before funds are truly investing in gender equal companies. The best scoring fund in our database only earned 68 out of 100 possible points. (See our scoring methodology here)
The problem is, for a fund to earn a top score of 100 points, it would have to only invest in companies that earn the top score from Equileap. Currently, there are ZERO companies that earn Equileap’s top score, since there isn’t a single company that has implemented all the policies necessary to make it a truly gender-equal entity.
That's why, in addition to a fund’s gender equality score, we also calculate fund rankings to show whether a fund is doing better or worse relative to other funds, especially funds that have a similar investment profile.
We've made some updates to our rankings, and added new options to our settings. Here's what has changed:
There are now three different ways to calculate fund rankings:
All funds, ranking funds in one large group of 5,000+
Groups, ranking funds in five medium-sized groups consisting of collections of Morningstar categories (See Morningstar's category grouping hierarchy here)
Categories, ranking funds in many small-sized groups consisting of individual Morningstar categories
Previously, we always showed two rankings for each fund: an overall ranking, and a peer ranking based on the Morningstar categories. Now, we're defaulting to show just one ranking, the Group ranking. To switch back to ranking by All Funds or by Categories, new controls have been added to the settings.
These changes are designed to simplify the layout and highlight the information that is most important to people looking to invest with a gender lens, while adding new ways to analyze and interpret the fund gender equality scores. Let us know what you think!
Want to help move the needle on gender equality issues in the workplace? Visit Gender Equality Funds and apply a gender lens to nearly 5,000 of the most commonly-held U.S. mutual funds. Gender Equality Funds enables investors to align their investment with their values. It reveals which mutual funds are investing in the companies that lead the field in terms of gender balance and equality. Investors can easily search the Gender Equality Funds database to see how specific funds are scored, find responsible options that track leading companies in terms of gender equality, and compare financial returns. Sign up here for updates on Gender Equality Funds.
Andrew Montes is the Director of Digital Strategies at As You Sow, where he designs and develops the Invest Your Values suite of responsible investing tools.