Euronext has launched eurozone and France equity indices targeting gender equality as “first pillars” in a broader range addressing gender balance in the workplace.
The Euronext Equipleap Gender Equality Eurozone 100 index and Euronext Equileap Gender Equality France 40 index will offer exposure to the top-performing companies in target regions.
The scoring will cover gender balance in leadership and workforce, equal compensation and work-life balance, policies promoting gender equality and commitment, transparency and accountability.
Equileap metrics are based on UN Women’s Empowerment principles and are designed to provide an overview of gender equality through companies’ value chains.
Companies will also be excluded from the indices if they are involved in controversial activities or are in violation of the UN Global Compact.
Euronext said the new benchmarks are in response to increased investor demand for social thematic investments and align with UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, gender equality.
“We constantly innovate in our products and services offering to meet investors’ strong demand and need to carry out their ESG transition,” said Camille Leca, head of ESG at Euronext.
She added, “As a market infrastructure, our role is to propose products for direct investment in ESG projects and, in this case, companies leading the way in gender equality performance.”
Diana van Maasdijk, CEO at Equileap,said “It appears that high-performing companies with the drive to do the right thing when it comes to addressing gender equality at work apply the same ethos to other key ESG criteria.
“Investors looking to create a better society with equal opportunities for women at work can now use these indices to back high-quality, high-performing companies.”
Since 2021, Euronext has launched 30 ESG indices covering new categories to invest in, including broad ESG considerations, specific themes such as low carbon, climate, biodiversity, hydrogen, water and social.
They have also included ESG versions of its national benchmark indices – the AEX ESG in Amsterdam and the OBX ESG in Oslo as well as the MIB ESG in Milan and the CAC 40 ESG in Paris.
