Glenmede Investment Management (GIM) impressed the judging panel with its thought leadership paper entitled Gender Equity Investing in Active Management: A Broadening Approach.

The panel praised this "interesting perspective" which stood out as having "added something new" and as a "useful addition to the canon" of gender investing research.

The boutique US-based investment manager considers the relationship between company fundamentals and gender representation as well as further explores the relationship between gender representation and company valuations.

GIM's research found that some gender equity data are relevant to financial performance and should be considered in portfolio construction.

Gender equity investing has historically focused on women in leadership initiatives and metrics. The field has now expanded to include broader outcomes for employees, including resources, policies, and programs that support gender diversity at all levels in the workplace, says GIM

GIM includes data from the gender equality data provider Equileap's Gender Equality Scorecard. This scorecard considers gender balance in leadership as well as characteristics such as pay equity, access to benefits, training, and career development, antiharassment policies, and diverse supply chains.

Having evaluated this data for companies over time, GIM found a potential relationship between these broader gender equity factors and stock performance and created the Gender Equity Momentum factor.

GIM anticipates that this more holistic approach to evaluating gender equity investing could become a best practice moving forward.