Bloomberg Línea — Some 620 companies from around the world applied to participate in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index (GEI) 2023, 484 of which were selected. Among those, there are 46 companies in Latin America, and which is a growth in the number for the region.
The GEI allows listed companies to go to the index website each year and report on five key pillars:
- Leadership and talent management
- Equality and parity of salaries between men and women
- An inclusive culture
- Policies against sexual harassment
- External brand image
Based on these criteria, the companies receive a score.
Which are the highest-ranked Latin American companies?
Bloomberg published the complete list of the companies, based on the 2021 fiscal year. The average disclosure score for companies submitting their data for FY 2021 to the Gender Reporting Framework was 93%. Energy (96%) and real estate (95%) were the highest scoring sectors for disclosure, and Latin America (97%) was the highest scoring region.
Latin America had the highest disclosure score of 97%, an increase of 1% from last year. North America had the lowest disclosure score of 92%, with noticeable increase of 2% from last year.
The 10 top-ranked companies for gender equality in Latin America are:
- TIM / Brazil (88.38 points)
- Grupo Argos / Colombia (88.29)
- InRetail Perú (86.23)
- Telefónica Brasil (85.77)
- Grupo Financiero Banorte / Mexico / (81.34)
- Banco Guayaquil / Ecuador / (81.31)
- Companhia Brasileira de Distribuição (80.97)
- Enel Chile (80.27)
- WalMart de México (78.36)
- Banco Bradesco / Brazil / (76.61)
Brazilian telecommunications company TIM came seventh worldwide, in a ranking led by Accenture, the Irish-American professional services company with a strong presence in Latin America.
In second place globally is Banco Santander, and in third place CaixaBank.
Latin American participation
Companies from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and, for the first time, Ecuador, made this year’s index.
The Argentine companies are Cresud, IRSA and Pampa Energía.
The Brazilian companies are Afya, Aliansce Sonae Shopping Centers, BB Seguros Participações, Banco Bradesco, Braskem, Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras, Companhia Brasileira de Distribuição, Companhia de Gás de São Paulo, Companhia de Transmissão de Energia Elétrica Paulista, Cogna Educação, Cosan, Fleury, Gerdau, Itau Unibanco Holding, Odontoprev, Sendas Distribuidora, Sul America, TIM, SA/Brasil and Telefónica Brasil.
The Chilean company is Enel Chile.
The companies in Colombia are Geopark, Grupo Argos Colombia and Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana.
The Ecuadorian company is Banco Guayaquil.
The Mexican companies are Coca-Cola Femsa, Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta, Fomento Económico Mexicano, Gentera, Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte, Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, Grupo Bimbo, Grupo Comercial Chedraui, Grupo Elektra, Grupo Financiero Banorte, Grupo GICSA, Grupo Herdez, Grupo Rotoplas, Kimberly Clark de México, Qualitas Controladora, Regional and WalMart de México.
The company in Peru is InRetail Perú.
The company in Uruguay is Globant (which was founded in Argentina.
Previously, financial companies were the only ones from Latin America that made the index, but this year’s list includes communications, moderate consumption, basic consumption, energy, financial, health, industrial, materials, real estate, technology and utilities companies.
The importance of female managers
The overall results show that women-led companies have a higher representation of women at all levels. Companies on the GEI with more than 30% female board representation have, on average, 27% female executives within the corporation, compared to 20% female executives in companies with fewer than 30% female board members.
“Gender diversity is not an option, but a must, a matter of equality,” said Kim Sung-tae, CEO of Industrial Bank of Korea. “Gender diversity will be the driver of sustainable development beyond the value of equality,” he said.
Diversity policies
This year, 64% of GEI members have implemented diversity and inclusion targets for managers in performance appraisals, an increase of eight points from last year. In addition, 86% of companies on the index offer unconscious bias training, and 74% of those companies track managers’ completion of the courses.
“We cannot overemphasize the importance of leadership in improving gender equality in the workplace,” said Patricia Torres, global head of Bloomberg Sustainable Finance Solutions.
“Change can only be driven when diversity and inclusion are part of executive performance metrics,” Torres added.
For his part, Bloomberg LP’s chairman Peter T. Grauer said: “as encouraging as it is to see more companies around the world showing their commitment to inclusion, we are still far from gender equality being a global corporate standard. We believe the GEI framework is an important tool companies can use to mark their progress in inclusion, unite as a corporate community, and drive social change”.
About the GEI
The standardized GEI reporting framework allows investors to compare how companies around the world are investing in women in the workplace, supply chain and communities in which they operate.
Submitting data using the Bloomberg Gender Insights Framework is voluntary and has no associated cost. The GEI is a benchmark index and should not be used as a financial benchmark. The index is not ranked. Companies included in this year’s index scored at or above the overall threshold set by Bloomberg to reflect a high level of disclosure and overall performance across all five pillars of the framework.
For the 2023 Index, Bloomberg added exploratory questions across the GEI framework that touch on sexual orientation, gender identity, race and ethnicity. Due to regional differences in company disclosure guidelines for sexual orientation, gender identity, race and ethnicity, a sub-set of exploratory questions were made available to companies based on their country of issuance and employee location.
“The GEI enhances investors’ ability to observe a company’s performance on gender equality,” Bloomberg states in this year’s edition of the GEI. “In most cases, data on gender equality is either self-reported by companies in required filings or is solicited by data vendors through voluntary surveys.
As a result, there is often a trade-off between the breadth and depth of data coverage. The GEI explores and applies more than 70 metrics to create a set of scores for each company, as well as offering commentary on select industry sectors for benchmarking and comparison. Each of the GEI’s five pillars contribute to a comprehensive view of workplace dynamics, backed by a transparent, data-driven methodology.”
