That approach is “really kind of a stretch” to include in the gender-lens investing world, says Barbara Krumsiek, senior industry fellow of Georgetown University’s Women’s Leadership Institute and a former chief executive officer of Calvert. That might not matter to everyone: She&Style has earned an 18 percent return this year, with holdings including Amorepacific Corp., a maker of skin-care products, and Hanssem Co., which makes kitchen furniture.

The grandmother of European women-focused funds, Valeurs Feminines, was created in 2005 by France’s Conseil Plus Gestion, a boutique money-management firm. It picks mostly from European companies with plenty of top female directors or managers or whose business has “a strong female connotation,” says Jean- Louis Hostache, CPG’s CEO.

Economic Power

Among major holdings at the end of June were advertiser Publicis Groupe SA, whose chairman and six of 15 other directors are women, and insurer Axa SA, where the chief operating officer and five of 14 board members are female. But Hostache and CPG fund manager Caroline Grinda also buy stakes in companies like Etam Developpement SA, a lingerie retailer whose shares are up about 25 percent this year. “We thought it would be a shame not to profit from the increasing economic power of women,” Hostache says. Valeurs Feminines has outperformed its benchmark, the Eurostox 50, by about 70 percent since its inception. It is up 8.8 percent so far this year.

The gender lens isn’t for everyone. BlackRock Inc., which lobbies companies to name more female directors and manages several socially responsible investments, doesn’t offer any focused on women. Michelle Edkins, global head of corporate governance, says there isn’t yet “a framework that is consistent and scalable” to guide this kind of investing if the goal is more than just solid returns.

Proving Causation

While gender diversity can be a sign of a well-managed company, “causation is the difficult thing to prove,” Edkins says. Is a company diverse because it’s well-run, or well-run because it’s diverse?

The number of women in top roles may not reflect how companies treat all female employees, so stock-picking based on such statistics is “simplistic -- it’s really surface-level investing,” Georgetown’s Krumsiek says. “It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re doing good things for all women.”

At U.S. Trust, Baron digs deeper for the Women & Girls investment strategy. Beyond looking at the number of women in executive positions, he considers whether companies are selling or sourcing products in countries where women aren’t fully participating citizens “or where girls are sold to pay for boys’ school fees.”

‘Good Performers’