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Gender Equality as an Investment Concept

Date: May 8, 2009

Time: 11:30 AM

Greeley Hall
Academy for Educational Development
1875 Connecticut Ave, NW
3rd Floor
Washington, DC

A new gender-based investment concept has the ability to advance women's equality and expand socially responsible investing by companies, international agencies, government, and individual investors. By integrating gender equality as well as financial, environmental, social, and governance criteria into corporate business models, we can promote potentially unprecedented sustainable long-term performance and social equality.

Demos, Pax World Mutual Funds, Women Thrive Worldwide, the National Council for Research on Women and the National Council of Women's Organizations are proud to collaborate on a forum about Gender Equality as an Investment Concept. We invite you to join us for an engaging discussion with key leaders in the movement for women's equality.

Moderator:

Linda Tarr-Whelan is a Distinguished Senior Fellow on Women's Leadership at Demos. Her book, Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up to Leadership - and Changing the World, will be published in 2009. She was Ambassador to the UN Commission on the Status of Women in the Clinton Administration, headed the Center for Policy Alternatives, and was Deputy Assistant to President Carter for women's concerns. She chairs the Pax World Women’s Advisory Council.

Panelists:

Joseph F. Keefe is the President and CEO of Pax World Funds, which launched the nation's first socially responsible mutual fund in 1971 and is a leader in the field of sustainable investing. Pax World's mutual funds include the Women's Equity Fund, the only mutual fund in America that focuses on investing in companies that invest in women. Joe was named by Ethisphere Magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics" for 2007.

 

Julie Gorte is Senior Vice President for Sustainable Investing at Pax World Funds. Previously, she was Vice President and Chief Social Investment Strategist at Calvert Group. Gorte has also served in many public policy and non-profit positions focusing on science and technology policy, environmental policy, industrial competitiveness, and workplace policy. She is one of the leading advocates for the full integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into financial analysis and decision-making.

 

Amanda Ellis is a Lead Specialist of the Gender Action Plan at the World Bank. She leads work on gender issues in private sector development in developing countries. Previously, she was head of Women’s Markets and National Manager of Women in Business for Westpac Banking Corporation in Sydney, Australia. Ellis also worked for the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. She is the author of Australia's best-selling books Women's Business, Women's Wealth and Women 2 Women, and was a finalist in Swinburne University's 2002 Australian Outstanding Woman of the Year Award in Banking and Finance.

Ritu Sharma is the Co-Founder and CEO of Women Thrive Worldwide and a leading voice on international women's issues and U.S. foreign policy. She is a co-chair of the Women, Faith and Development Coalition. Ritu is also the author of An Introduction to Advocacy: A Training Guide, and serves on the Board of Directors of InterAction, the Center for Global Engagement, and the Pax World Women’s Advisory Council. At Women Thrive Worldwide, she continues to build and grow diverse coalitions to link global women's organizations with U.S. businesses, think tanks, and NGOs to help women in poverty.

 

Anne Black is a Vice President and member of the Corporate Engagement team at Goldman Sachs for the firm's 10,000 Women Initiative. 10,000 Women is a global initiative that is providing management and business education to 10,000 women entrepreneurs in emerging markets and domestically over the next five years, while also simultaneously strengthening the quality and capacity of business education at academic institutions worldwide. Previously, Anne was a Director of Major Gifts at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and a Vice President for Operations at IAC.

This panel is a part of the Women's Leadership Initiative at Demos. The Women's Leadership Initiative highlights fresh thinking, research, and writing about the importance of women's equality and leadership in building a strong democracy and securing economic prosperity. Featuring prominent political leaders, scholars, and advocates, this series seeks to expand the ideas of public intellectuals' thinking and writing on and about women and women's advancement.

With: Linda Tarr-Whelan

Tags: Women's Leadership Initiative