APPG ESG tackles stubbornly high gender inequality in corporate sector
Today, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) has released a new report called: ‘Transparency, coordination and ambition, delivering gender equality through ESG’.
The report from APPG, chaired by Alexander Stafford MP, shows how tougher targets allied with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices can make a positive difference in gender inequality across entrepreneurship and the corporate sector.
Female entrepreneurs account for less than one in eight loan applications compared to their male counterparts, the latter on average applying for loans that are three times bigger.
In the corporate sector, the FTSE 350 has hit the 40 per cent target for women on boards. However, the 100 index features only nine female CEOs.
At the current rate, the FTSE 100 will not reach gender parity until 2076.
explores how we can begin to bridge these gaps with the application of ESG practices and principles.
Creating a system of disclosure schemes, reviews and taskforces, with the visible support from government leadership will hopefully create the right framework conditions for more gender-related data to “flow” between companies and investors.
Combined with stronger corporate governance and regulatory oversight, there should soon be shifts in boardrooms and senior committees.
The report also recognises that investors are actively looking to see investment prospects meet certain thresholds with regard to gender equality.
Companies therefore face a double incentive to put in place appropriate programmes and talent pipelines to ensure more women rise up to senior management and above.
“Quite simply, businesses with an even balance of female and male leaders thrive. And in ESG we have an immensely useful tool to make UK businesses more resilient and more profitable while meeting a major public policy objective, one that is so obvious in my view I fear we all too easily forget about it”, said Alexander Stafford MP, Chairman of the APPG on ESG.
“With such a tiny minority of women occupying executive positions, there is still far to go, which is why I support the APPG’s recommendation for stronger signals from Government, more coordination, and quite simply more ESG.”