State Street Global Advisors has introduced an exchange-traded fund on Tuesday, the SPDR Gender Diversity Index ETF, which will go by the ticker symbol “SHE.” According to Paul Sullivan and Charlie Mahoney, writers for the New York Times, “The fund’s goal is to achieve market-rate returns by investing in U.S. companies that “are leaders in advancing women through gender diversity on their boards of directors and in management.”
The article quotes Kristi Mitchem, head of the Americas institutional client group at State Street, as saying, “It’s looking to create a way for investors to put money into companies that have figured out the diversity challenge, that have managed to recruit and retain women in senior leadership positions.” Kristi is a member of the “Paradigm for Parity,” a coalition of 50 senior women leaders (CEOs, senior executive, founders, board members, and business academics) who have set the goal of achieving gender parity by 2030. Another coalition member, Sandra Beach Lin, is moderating a panel discussion at the 2016 AWESOME Symposium on the Paradigm for Parity recommendations, including five action steps.