The #MeToo movement has brought the awareness of sexual harassment into new areas of people’s lives, including investing, according to Cornerstone Capital Group.
Until now, shareholders’ interest in gender issues at the companies they were investing in usually revolved around equal pay, discrimination and working conditions. That concern has now been expanded to include sexual harassment and gender-based violence, said Cornerstone Capital Group.
Cornerstone Capital is a financial services firm with almost $1 billion in assets under management and it is a research organization that promotes companies that take environmental, social and governance issues into consideration.
Companies that foster a work atmosphere that allows sexual harassment and violence and that are not transparent about how such matters are handled are putting themselves at financial risk of shareholders backlash, said Cornerstone.
These same companies could be reducing the productivity of employees, Cornerstone said in the report, "Structural Complicity: Sexual and Gender-based Violence as an Emerging Investment Risk."
“We believe it is incumbent upon investors to demand greater transparency on issues of sexual and gender-based violence related to business activity; to hold companies accountable for reducing it, and to incentivize companies to minimize” harassment, the report said.
In addition, Cornerstone said it believes “companies that enable such behavior either unwittingly or through negligence are also culpable for the persistence” of sexual harassment."
Cornerstone warned, “Investment issues are dynamic. Risks evolve alongside stakeholder interest and companies’ strategies. As stakeholders become more aware of an issue, it can evolve from a non-financial to a financial concern for companies.”