“We look at this portfolio as most fund families do: We are looking for characteristics that make the portfolio advantageous,” says Pax’s McQuiggan.
“This is not a new phenomena,” says Julie Gorte, senior vice president of sustainable investing at Pax World Management. “The evidence is there that diversity does better.”
The Pax Ellevate fund has been in existence since June 2014, and it had a one-year return of -3.58% versus the -3.87% return of its benchmark MSCI World Index.
In addition, U.S. Trust has the Women & Girls Equality Strategy, a separately managed account that applies a gender lens to the asset classes of U.S. equity and taxable corporate fixed income.
Other women-centric offerings include Morgan Stanley’s Parity Portfolio, a separately managed account for high-net-worth individuals and institutional clients that focuses on increasing female board representation, along with the Barclays Women in Leadership Total Return Index composed of companies with a female CEO or companies where women make up at least one-fourth of the board of directors.