The future of sustainable social investing rests with women

When the whole trend towards social investing first started, women were viewed predominantly as beneficiaries of that investment rather than those making sustainable social investment decisions. But, things are beginning to change. The advent of gender lens investing, a more women centric approach to building investment portfolios with a high social impact, puts capital behind women in a much more systematic way. Today, instead of women simply being the beneficiaries of social investment, they are also the decisionmakers who are building innovative and effective ecosystems for social investing in women-run initiatives that have high social impact potential. This should make complete sense, given that female investors have been shown to display more positive attitudes towards social investing than their male counterparts. A recent US survey found that half of the wealthy women interviewed expressed an interest in social and environmental investing while only one-third of wealthy men did. In the same survey, 65% of women thought social, political and environmental impacts were important, as compared to just 52% of men. Ultimately, social investors realise that focusing initiatives like microfinance lending for women owned enterprises turns out to be the most effective way to make whole communities more prosperous.