In the past two years, there have been significant developments in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) index-based investing. S&P Global Market Intelligence thinks that a more modest global economic expectation, a focus on climate changes and the gender pay-gap disparity and a new generation of investors comfortable with alternatively-weighted passive strategies plays a role.
Financial services and healthcare stocks combine for 34.5% of SHE’s lineup while technology and industrial names combine for another 28%. At nearly 13%, the consumer discretionary sector is the only other group to garner double-digit representation in SHE.
“When SSgA executives were creating the index, they wanted to focus on women across senior management levels. What they have found is that there is a lot of variation across sectors. The lack of women in top positions is most obvious in technology and energy. Consumer staples and consumer discretionary tend to have more women in senior positions,” adds Pensions & Investments.
