If you're particularly interested in gender diversity, a new stock
index series introduced by the folks at Pax World and KLD provides a
shortcut to finding promising investment candidates. The objective of
The Gender Investment Index series is "demonstrating that gender
equality is an important indicator of financial health, and that
companies that empower women and encourage gender diversity outperform
others over the long term."
Below are some of the top holdings in the North America Women
Investment Index (NAWI), which includes 216 companies. As you can see,
while these companies may all look good from a gender-equality
standpoint, investors in our Motley Fool CAPS community have a mixed bag of opinions about their stocks:
|
Company
|
CAPS Rating (5 max)
|
|
Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO)
|
***
|
|
General Mills (NYSE: GIS)
|
****
|
|
Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE: BNS)
|
*****
|
|
New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT)
|
*
|
|
AT&T (NYSE: T)
|
****
|
|
Estee Lauder (NYSE: EL)
|
**
|
|
Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX)
|
*****
|
Selection criteria for the index included representation of women on
the board of directors and in management, programs and policies that
support women (such as mentoring, maternity leave, and flexible
schedules), and lawsuits or claims about discrimination or hostile work
environments.
I popped over to check the New York Times' board of directors and
found that five of the 15 are women (including President and CEO Janet
Robinson). At General Mills, I found eight of 32 top managers were
women, along with five of 13 directors.
What to do
If this kind of socially responsible investing (which also bears the possibility of solid performance) appeals to you, keep an eye out for new index mutual funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on these indexes.
Learn more in these articles:
-
Can You Afford to Be Socially Responsible?
-
Fool Awards: Most Socially Responsible Company
-
Stocks with Scruples
© 2009 UCLICK, L.L.C.
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