In terms of stock market investment, too, it is possible to play the card of parity between women and men. In the world of collective management, a handful of funds modestly called “professional equality” or “gender” have chosen to include in their portfolio only companies that have initiated an active policy in favor of women internally. “Recent, this category is still divisive. It passes or it breaks with investors. It is still a militant act for some. These funds are not collective management blockbusters, but they find their place in the market ”, comments Nicolas Bénéton, thematic specialist at Robeco.
Initially, the idea was to “ create a larger fund and not only on women, but rather on diversity in the company in all its forms, from gender to age, including socio-cultural and ethnic origins. However, to date this data is not easy to recover, or even does not exist ”, acknowledges Tiphaine Dureau, product and service specialist at Nordea AM.
“Unlike the United States, where we can obtain ethnic and racial statistics, these data are prohibited in France”, adds Mathilde Dufour, responsible for research in sustainable development and listed assets at Mirova.
In order to sweep wide in an economic universe where men are the majority, management companies have all opted for “world” funds, without restriction of country or sector of activity. In addition to traditional financial criteria, the selection is therefore based on extra-financial criteria. On closer inspection, their portfolios have a few things in common.
Beyond the pay gap
First of all, these vehicles are all labeled ISR (socially responsible investment). Next, “They all have a strong exposure to the United States and are also very focused on so-called growth sectors such as banking, tech, fashion and luxury”, underlines Jean-François Bay, CEO of Quantalys. “There are still sectors such as industry, information technology and health where they are under-represented”, points out Antonio Celeste, head of ESG products (which take into account environmental, social and governance criteria) at Lyxor AM. Ultimately, “This gives this category a fairly consensual behavior close to the MSCI World index”, specifies Jean-François Bay.
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