GENDER EQUALITY – A CATALYST FOR ACCELERATING ESG • EQUAL SALARY (2024)

Gender equality serves as a powerful drive within the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) framework, playing a pivotal role in driving sustainable and responsible business practices. As a fundamental aspect of the social dimension of ESG, gender equality ensures that businesses prioritise fair pay, fair treatment, diversity, and inclusion. Fostering such essential gender equality standards of ethical leadership and social responsibility has a direct impact on creating positive environmental and governance outcomes. By embracing equality and diversity and empowering women across all levels of an organization, businesses enhance innovation, overall corporate performance and allow for more well-rounded and informed decisions essential for ESG performance. Hence, gender equality, becomes a transformative force, influencing not only the social fabric of a company but also its environmental impact and governance practices, ultimately contributing to a more sustainable and resilient business model and society.

10 ways in which gender equality drives other aspects of ESG.

1. Foundational Repercussion: Gender equality is interwoven into all aspects of the ESG framework. Fair treatment, diversity, and inclusion are the building blocks of responsible business practices. Ensuring equal opportunities and championing diversity across all levels of an organization is a fundamental aspect of comprehensive and ethical leadership, positively influencing environmental decisions, and strengthening governance structures.

2. Authenticity and Accountability: Institutional investors, activist shareholders, potential employees, and customers expect substantial corporate values of honesty and transparency, and they call out organizations when they’re lacking. Alignment with ethical practices based on fairness, transparency and accountability translates into trust and loyalty. Companies prioritizing gender equality often extend their commitment to supply chain practices, contributing to the environmental and social dimensions of ESG as a global corporate responsibility.

3. Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Greater attention to gender diversity is leading to regulatory effects, with governments and regulators monitoring companies with increasing scrutiny on their female representation. New directives are requiring widespread gender pay gap reporting and the inclusion of women on corporate boards. Adhering to gender equality practices ensures compliance with evolving legal and regulatory standards, addressing governance concerns within the ESG framework.

4. Diverse Boards: Gender-balance at the top translates into a culture and leadership, positively impacting decisions across the wider dimensions of ESG, e.g., setting new environmental standards, empowering partnerships, and raising trust levels with aligned stakeholders. This virtuous cycle leads to bolder action, as companies become more visibly purpose-driven and begin to integrate more deliberately ESG outcomes into their strategic decision-making processes.

5. Financial Benefits: Research from S&P Global Market Firms highlights that firms with female CFOs and high gender diversity on their boards tend to be more profitable and exhibit superior stock price performance. Gender equality and diversity in teams translate into higher profitability, productivity boost, improved innovation, top talent retention and attraction and a more positive work culture.

6. Integration of Gender Diversity in Assessments: Investors are now incorporating assessments of companies’ gender diversity and equity when evaluating responses to ESG risks and opportunities. This includes a focus on increasing the representation of women in corporate boards, C-suite positions, and executive leadership, along with ensuring equal compensation and mobility for women and people of colour. Companies committed to gender equality often attract socially responsible investors, positively impacting the governance aspect of ESG.

7. Potential Impact on Global Markets: S&P Global’s findings suggest that increasing female labour force participation could significantly boost global market valuations, with potential trillions added to market capitalization within the US economy alone. The study emphasises the economic benefits associated with closing the gender gap for men and women collectively.

8. Continued Pressure for Action: As the benefits of gender-diverse leadership become more evident, public companies are expected to face continued pressure from investors to take meaningful actions toward enforcing gender diversity and inclusion in practice and policies transversally, with specific gender KPIs for top management.

9. Enhanced Sustainability: Gender equality initiatives contribute to the overall sustainability of a company, directly contributing to environmental, social, and governance considerations within ESG.

10. Risk Mitigation: Gender-diverse boards are associated with better risk management and legal compliance, addressing governance concerns within the ESG framework.

The EQUAL-SALARY Certification was designed to allow companies around the world, in every field, to address the difference between inequality and discrimination, to ensure all employees are paid equally for the same work.

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