Investing in Women: Our Call to Action

Since the early 1900’s, International Women’s Day has held a place on our March 8th calendar. This past year, more than ever, the day has become more than just an alert on our smartphone calendars. How society perceives women in the professional world has become a major talking point as of late. This year, it seemed as though the conversations shifted. Rather than only identifying the issues with gender equality, discussions of solutions seemed to have more pertinence in 2018.

Across the United States and around world, women are rarely offered the most senior leadership roles at a company. Less than 5% of the Fortune 500 CEOs are female. As our society continues working towards closing the pay gap, individuals can invest towards increasing women in leadership.

For many companies, the path towards a gender balanced senior management team starts when a woman leads. By having a women executive, (CEO, CFO, COO, etc.) businesses are likely to see the number of females in management pipeline triple according to an Accenture study. Another equally empowering statistic, shows that women-led companies will often outperform those run by men. The higher rates of diversity within businesses will stem from the top. If the company has a woman CEO, a trickle-down effect often occurs when it comes to a well-rounded leadership team.

From celebrities to entrepreneurs, everyone is getting a foot in the door when it comes to the promotion of women in professional endeavors. Everyone can contribute, even those who aren’t famous or major players in large companies. Hypatia Invests is the first platform for those wanting to invest in leading public companies where more women hold leadership roles. This is where this new breed of investors want their savings and investments to be. The three funds currently highlighted on Hypatia Invests are the only publicly available funds that sponsor women who lead, although many more are expected as momentum builds. With as little as $100, investors can make their voice heard that they want change. 

With the goal of one day seeing 50% of all CEO’s be female, Hypatia Invests is opening the dialogue and getting people to ask all the right questions. By encouraging everyone who cares about diversifying the leadership of corporate America to invest as little as 1% of their portfolio in funds sponsoring women in leadership, Hypatia Invests hopes to increase the number of women CEOs in the future. This collaborative initiative of investing at least 1% in funds sponsoring women in leadership can reach in to the hundreds of billions if widely adopted, bringing light and attention to this important step in creating the egalitarian society we all hope and dream of.

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