8th March marks International Women’s Day – a movement dedicated to creating an equal world. The theme for this year is ‘Accelerate Action’ and the aim is to campaign for a world that champions equal rights, power and opportunities for all.
Research from the World Economic Forum found that, at the current rate of progress, it will take until 2158 until we have achieved full gender parity. However, advancing gender parity could add $12 trillion to global GDP, and it could boost some countries economic output by as much as 35%.
Globally, economic disparities continue between women and men, with women generally facing lower pay; higher levels of informal employment; and more unpaid care work than men.
This year’s theme of ‘Accelerate Action’ focuses on the United Nations (UN) fifth sustainable development goal, ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’. At NorthEdge, we’re also aligned to supporting this goal within our own business and across the portfolio.
In 2023, in the NorthEdge portfolio:
- 83% of companies have at least one female board member, compared to only 37.8% of female board membership across the UK
- The average portfolio gender pay gap is 9% vs. the UK average of 14.3%.
- 100% of our portfolio companies have female representation on the senior leadership team
- Of the businesses where we are the lead investor, 29% of CEOs are female vs. 11% in the FTSE 100
As well as raising awareness for gender equality, International Women’s Day also encourages the need for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI&I) more broadly. At NorthEdge, we are committed to enhancing diversity efforts across all underrepresented groups in our business and our portfolio – because we know it’s the right thing to do and because we know it generates more value for stakeholders.
McKinsey & Company’s ‘Diversity matters even more: The case for holistic impact’ provides further evidence on the positive correlation between diverse leadership and financial success. Gender diverse executive teams showed a 39% increased likelihood of financial outperformance compared to a decade ago, the same is true for ethnically diverse leadership teams.
It also highlights that diverse leadership teams are more likely to have a positive impact on a wider set of stakeholders, including employees, customers and investors.
Our mission is that every investment we make will have a positive impact.
We recognise that before you can build a diverse business you have to create an inclusive culture. Therefore, we are focused on creating an environment where all our people can thrive, seeking out diversity of background, experience, ideas and opinions and hire based on culture and values.
At NorthEdge we take our responsibilities seriously – as both employers and investors. The work we do to promote DE&I across our business, our portfolio and our market continues to be a fundamental element to our success. We use both extensive in-house knowledge and draw on external experts to continuously challenge ourselves and improve on our DE&I performance, building better businesses, and industries, as a result.
In recognition of International Women’s Day, and to celebrate all of our leaders who are catalysts for change, we have donated to Smart Works at their Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham centres.
To support the day further, we have gathered a set of resources below to highlight and encourage more workplaces and individuals to build inclusive cultures across their networks, learn why gender equality is not just about women, and discuss how we can all support one another to achieve a better future.
Charities
Young Women’s Trust – offer a free service that provides support for women aged 18 to 30 to unlock their potential by building skills, strong mental health and opening up opportunities. Their Work It Out programme supports young women with CV advice, job application support and six free one-to-one coaching sessions.
Smart Works – a dressing and coaching service designed to help women be the best version of themselves at a crucial moment in their lives, when they are seeking employment. The women who come to Smart Works are referred from Job Centres, mental health charities, women’s refuges, homeless shelters, the prison service, care service and youth organisations.
Girls Who Code – is an international non-profit organisation working to close the gender gap in technology by teaching girls computer science, bravery, and sisterhood!
Further Reading & Helpful Links
- The Rose Review
- Invest in Women Hub
- Invest in Women Code (IIWC), British Business Bank
- McKinsey & Co – Women in the Workplace report
- Level 20 – Diversity & Inclusion Report 2024
- Black Rock – Lifting financial performance by investing in women
- NorthEdge – Supporting International Day of Women & Girls in Science
- Female Founders Forum – Annual Report: Accelerate to Excel
- UK Parliament – Economic inclusion of women
- World Economic Forum – The Global Gender Parity Sprint
- United Nations (UN) – Sustainable Development Goals – Goal 5