Our Metrics
Gender Fair rates companies on metrics derived from the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) to ensure companies meet benchmark investments in gender equality—internally and in the communities they serve.
Launched in 2010 by UN Women & the United Nations Global Compact, the WEPs offer specific, measurable goals for gender equity.
Gender Fair rates companies on a 100-point index assessing five key areas:
Leadership & Opportunities
We analyze a company’s commitment to advancing women in leadership throughout its organization. Questions include:
- Does the company ensure equal access to training and development for men and women, including mentorship and sponsorship?
- What is the percentage of women on the company's board of directors?
- What is the percentage of women on the company's executive team?
- What is the percentage of women across the company's management?
*Women in Management: Management figures are self-reported, and definitions may vary.
Employee Policies
We analyze a company’s ability to provide a supportive working environment for employees. Questions include:
- Does the company provide paid parental leave to primary caregivers?
- Does the company provide paid parental leave to secondary caregivers?
- Does the company have programs or policies such as flexible work arrangements, back-up child/elder care, returnships, health & wellness?
- Does the company publish gender pay data and address any pay gaps?
- Does the company have any of the following in regards to sexual harassment: a third party reporting hotline, ombuds, a non-forced arbitration policy?
Advertising & Communication
Score provided by Advertising Benchmark Index, who developed the first-ever measurement for unconscious gender bias in advertising, which have been adopted by the ANA, AFE and #SeeHer as their Gender Equality Measure®.
Diversity Reporting
We analyze a company’s commitment to intersectional gender equality. Questions include:
- Does the company track and report on women, including women of color, in its workforce?
- Does the company support women-owned-businesses in its supply chain?
Social Impact
We analyze a company's engagement with promoting gender equality outside of the workplace. Questions include:
- Does the company have community-based programs that focus on women, girls, or gender equality specifically?
- Does the company publish the financial contributions to these programs?
The Data We Use
The current iteration of public data was collected in 2024 from publicly available sources including annual reports, corporate social impact reports, sustainability reports, and company websites. Our ratings also incorporate credible, independent, third-party data from a number of sources, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as well as ABX, Equileap and Equilar. The data collection and evaluation timelines of these sources may differ from ours.
Due to the rigor of the validation process for Gender Fair Certified companies, evaluations of public companies are conducted once per year, and ratings are valid for one year from the date of validation, regardless of changes within Gender Fair or the rated organization.
If a foreign company has a U.S. division with its own executive committee and board, we will use the data for the U.S. division in our ratings. When rating foreign companies, we include their programs and policies in the U.S., and not in other markets.
We take every effort to ensure the accuracy of the data, and contact each company to give them the opportunity to confirm. Individuals and companies are invited to submit a request for correction for any information they believe is incorrect.
If you represent a publicly held company, and have questions about your company’s rating, please contact us at research@genderfair.com.
The Companies We Rate
Gender Fair collects data and applies a proprietary methodology to rate publicly traded companies. Our database contains information on more than 500 such companies.
As of summer 2019, we launched assessment of privately held organizations, including non-profits. As private companies are not bound by the same disclosure mandates as public companies, we rely on self-reported data to evaluate these organizations.
As we are committed to transparency, we are only able to provide points to companies that disclose information whether on workfoce composition (e.g., EEO-1 reports), employee benefits and supplier diversity spend.
In both cases, data is individually validated by our research team prior to the release of a company’s rating.