Gender component in the ESG-investment: a way to a fairer corporate environment

Abstract

In a constant struggle for clients, companies need to get inventive as they face investors’ pressure in keeping their policies up to date: ecological, social and compliant. Nearly every company nowadays is willing to include the ESG-component to its financial statement. Unfortunately, only a part of them really stands behind the ESG-principles stated on paper, whether many engage themselves into advertising it on social media in the wave of the so-called “green washing” or “green PR”. The new Generation Y, building a fresh class of investors, presents itself as a challenge for the rigid financial sector while pushing it to compliance with their values of total inclusion, ecological and gender balance. Women are still widely underrepresented in the financial industry, and during the coronavirus pandemic gender gap has only worsened in all fields. The article aims to explain the concept of ESG-investment and its gender component. It argues the different approaches to define the ESGinvesting and makes the notion of evolution of corporations’ social responsible policies over time.