“This is one of the areas within the field of impact investing where there appears to be the potential for additional returns,” says Burke.

After attempting to employ screens to avoid the worst offenders in gender inequality and to capture only the most socially responsible companies, Cooper and her team found that they had whittled down the investing universe into a small cohort of companies.

When Athena tried to apply similar screens to funds, only using funds with gender inclusion on their management teams, they also found that they were left with a set of potential investments not at all representative of the investment universe -- a sign of poor diversity within the financial industry.

“There are asset classes and sectors that have very few women fund managers or corporate executives at all,” says Burke.

By focusing on funds run by women, Athena is able to diversify across asset classes into private equity and hedge funds, then apply a weighting strategy, excluding companies with no women and emphasizing companies with balanced management.

The result is a strategy that, to date, has beaten the S&P 500 by more than 500 basis points, says Burke.

“There really is a benefit to gender lens investing,” says Burke. “Certain qualities go along with women and companies in terms of risk mitigation and not being over confident, yet you also want the qualities that go along with men -- you do want to take risks. That’s why it’s important ot emphasize diversified teams.”

Gender lens investing is also accessible via indexes -- Pax World Investments has offered the Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund, or PXWEX, since 2014, while State Street Global Advsors launched the SPDR SSGA Gender Diversity Index ETF, or SHE, in 2016.

Athena’s strategies may provide better opportunities for certain investors because they are able to look across asset classes and geographies, says Burke.

“It’s fantastic that there’s an ETF that can do this, for smaller, individual investors that seems like a terrific way to go,” says Burke. “We can customize these portfolios for the client; for someone with more money to invest, these strategies may offer a better after tax return.”