Globally, Investors are increasingly engaged with the business and human rights discourse and promoting implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP).  They are paying more attention to the negative impacts of their investments on society and the environment and to enhance investments that contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goals as much as they are interested in avoiding financial and reputational risks. It has therefore become pertinent for investors to assess the social impacts of their investments and the role they can play in protecting human rights. While there has been considerable progress vis-a-via sustainable investing, gender continue to be ‘sprinkled’ or considered as a tick-box exercise. Even UNGPs were criticized for a lack of gender perspective, until Gender Guidance to Business and Human Rights was developed by Professor Surya Deva, Member of the UN working group on Business and Human Rights.

Despite, increasing evidence and acceptance that gender equity is good for investment, businesses and society, venture capitalists in 2017 invested $85bn in new companies of which 80 percent went to all-male teams, 12 per cent to mixed-gender teams and 8 percent to teams whose gender was not reported. One of the key reasons attributed to lack of investment with a gender lens is the lack of awareness and confusion among investors about how to incorporate gender into their process and analysis. It is in this context that the gender guidance developed by Prof Deva will prove useful to investors in ensuring a gender lens through their process, analysis and decision making. The Gender Guidance calls for gender-responsive assessment to inform gender-transformative measures and remedies, providing a range of illustrations of how to put this into practice. The Guidance highlights the "differentiated, intersectional and disproportionate adverse impacts on women’s human rights” and calls for remedies and measures that are "capable of bringing change to patriarchal norms and unequal power relations that underpin discrimination, gender-based violence and gender stereotyping". 

Investors should note that gender responsive assessment should not be one-time exercise and assess the ways in which “State or business enterprise’s current and future actions or omissions might adversely affect women”. And to be able to do so, it is essential to collect sex-disaggregated data and analyze using experts on the subject. The assessment should be all inclusive and participatory in nature and should not exclude. Gender responsive assessment should not be confused with ‘gender-audit’ and should be conducted over and beyond it. Similarly, it shouldn’t be subsumed in a larger human rights impact assessment. The investors should use the gender framework to screen investments based upon performance against gender benchmarks, such as diversity in board and leadership positions, pay equity, policies and practices related to hiring, promotion, maternity and childcare. The screening could also be done to assess if the goods, services or marketing reaffirms social and gender norms that discriminate women. Products and services that have a positive impact on women’s lives could be incentivized.

Gender transformative measures should be aimed at achieving substantive gender equality by addressing systemic discrimination and undertaking proactive steps, including through special measures and affirmative action. The investors should encourage their investees to achieve substantive gender equality and eliminate all forms of discrimination, harassment and violence against women. Incentives could be provided to the investees undertaking steps to address systemic discrimination and violence against women. Studies have established the cost to business due to violence against women both at workplace and in domestic circles, and the investors may seek a risk mitigation and remediation plan from business before investment – forcing them to think about these issues, and to take action. Similarly, women inclusion shouldn’t be completed as a human resource exercise, but with a human rights based approach to ensure equality and dignity.

Gender transformative remedies calls to “offer a range of preventive, redressive and deterrent remedies”. The investors should use their leverage to identify appropriate remedies to address systemic as well as specific abuses.

Each investment has an impact on women, one way or another. Data indicates that investing in women is not only the right thing to do, but it is a smart business decision. A McKinsey Global Institute report finds that if women play an identical role in labor markets to that of men as much as $28 trillion, or 26 percent, could be added to global annual GDP by 2025.  Another recent report shows that private equity and venture capital funds with gender-balanced senior investment teams generated 10 percent to 20 percent higher returns compared with funds that have a majority of male or female leaders. Gender investment should not be seen only as a lens, but as a lever to pull for greater profits as well as impact.