Gender Lens Investing

Prologue

“We must look at the lens through which we see the world, as well as the world we see, and that the lens itself shapes how we interpret the world.”¹

—Stephen R. Covey

This book is the result of years of research and analysis, of thoughtful contemplation and discussion, of personal observation and experience. But the idea for the book—the moment when we decided to combine our knowledge and different perspectives on the printed page—came after a joint presentation that was almost a disaster.

We were supposed to meet on several occasions prior to the event to discuss outlooks and approaches, but each attempt proved fruitless. So, the first time we met was on stage. In front of 100 eager audience members. At a Beverly Hills hotel. The topic: Womenomics—or how empowering women can have wide ranging positive social and economic effects. Joe had written widely on the subject for U.S. Trust, the private wealth management arm of Bank of America. Jackie had only recently been hired by U.S. Trust, to build out the firm's impact investing strategy, with a particular focus on an area of expertise of hers: gender.

With no discussion of which points we'd cover, and no idea of how we'd share the spotlight, the old hand and the new hire launched into a rollicking back and forth, quite unlike anything we'd experienced before. With Joe displaying his grasp of facts and figures, and Jackie injecting new angles and subtle counterarguments, we had the audience electrified—and no one had ...