WOMEN'S INCLUSION PROJECT
The Women’s Inclusion Project (WIP) utilizes gender lens investment strategies to support women and girls. Proxy Impact provides shareholder advocacy and proxy voting services for impact investors.
Together we engage companies to eliminate gender pay disparities, increase board gender diversity, expand the number of women in senior management, stop online child sexual exploitation and combat sexual harassment in the workplace.
This is accomplished by using shareholder advocacy strategies including investor letters, corporate dialogues, shareholder resolutions, soliciting shareholder support, speaking at annual shareholder meetings, participating in investor networks, publishing reports, and media outreach.
In 2022, WIP engaged 12 companies including Meta/Facebook, Apple, AT&T, Verizon and Visa regarding child safety and child sexual exploitation online; Pay Pal and Charles Schwab on diversity, equity and inclusion; and Microsoft, Cigna, Target, Best Buy and Pfizer on the gender and racial pay gap (we also publish an annual Racial and Gender Pay Scorecard which grades more than 50 of the largest U.S. corporations on their pay gap disclosure).
WIP is a collaboration of like-minded investors who select issues and companies - generally from their portfolios - and participate at the level that is most comfortable to them. Some simply allow us to use their shares to file a shareholder resolution, while others are actively engaged in research, company dialogues and media.
To date, we have had more than 75 company engagements on behalf of dozens of different co-filers including CB Wealth Generation, members of the Women’s Inclusion Project New England, foundations, and clients of the Aperio Group, Veris Wealth Partners, Wetherby Asset Management, Athena Capita and Fiduciary Trust International. We regularly collaborate with other gender lens, socially responsible, faith-based and impact investors.
Below is a list of the companies and issues we have, or are engaged on.