Gender lens investing
Gender lens investing (GLI) is an investment approach that enables investors to align their investments in a way that promotes gender equity and/or addresses gender equality issues.
As part of our 2026–2030 Strategy, Australians Investing in Women (AIIW) is strengthening the gender lens investing ecosystem in Australia. Our work focuses on connecting investors, sharing practical insights, and building momentum for gender-smart capital that advances gender equality.
This work is led by Maddie Lucas, Gender Lens Investing Lead, and is supported by engagement across philanthropy, finance and impact investing. Through these conversations, AIIW has begun mapping the Australian gender lens investing landscape and identifying opportunities to accelerate progress.
These efforts have informed the development of the Gender Lens Investing Collaborative (GLIC): a growing network designed to support peer learning, collaboration and collective action among investors. AIIW will formally launch the Gender Lens Investing Strategy, Roadmap and Collaborative in 2026.
If you would like to learn more about gender lens investing or express interest in joining the Collaborative, please contact madeline.lucas@aiiw.org.au.
In the meantime, we have curated a selection of resources and tools to support organisations exploring how gender lens investing can advance gender equality.
Trusts and Foundations wanting to explore the ways in which a gender lens investing approach can promote gender equality may be interested in the organisations and resources we have shared below.
We trust that the information offered in these sections and related links will help and support you on your GLI journey.
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Gender Lens Investing fundamentals:
What is GLI and why does it matter?
Australia:
- How gender diversity can unlock Australia’s economic prosperity
A sneak-peak into the conversation and insights from leaders in the field, exploring the critical role investors, family offices and fund managers can play in driving gender diversity. The event was co-hosted by Alberts and Melior Investment Management in Sydney in a bid to get the conversation going and encourage action through collaboration on GLI. - Building an Inclusive Innovation Economy report
was commissioned by Investment NSW, to provide critical insights and recommendations on the impacts of government funding, programs and policies on women entrepreneurs in Australia’s startup and innovation ecosystem. In this report, the Women’s Entrepreneurship IRG presents:- a deep dive into the current state of gender equity in the Australian startup ecosystem and the case for systemic change
- unprecedented insights on the complex and nuanced barriers facing women entrepreneurs, and the compounding impact those barriers have during the capital raising process and beyond
- exploration of international best practice for embedding an intersectional gender-lens across an investment landscape
- a set of key recommendations for government, including potential funding models, policy settings and programs of work, that could meaningfully increase gender inequity in the innovation ecosystem
- a national vision for harnessing women’s entrepreneurship and innovation as a central driver of economic growth.
Global and international:
- New to gender lens investing?
From definitions to data to a short introductory video course, 2X Global has tailored resources for investors across asset classes and markets who want to understand how and why to integrate gender in their investment strategies.
- Sustainable Finance Benefits from a Gender Lens
(Asian Development Bank, Feb 2024) — This brief outlines why investing in women makes economic sense and explains how financial institutions can incorporate gender into sustainable financing in Asia and the Pacific to better address social inequality and boost climate action.
- Criterion Institute Podcast (#40)
Joy Anderson makes the case for why GLI is more important than ever: The election backlash underscores urgency and a discussion about the gender lens investing challenge inequities, and driving transformative systems change.
- Framing (and Reframing) Gender
Framing guide for gender lens investing including key messaging, definitions, examples, critiques, and transformative reframes.
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Practical guidance and tools:
How to do GLI
For beginners and trust and foundations who are ready to go deeper
Australia:
- A Roadmap for Australian Investors – How to invest to achieve gender equity, racial equity, diversity and inclusion
This is an Australian guide created by Capital Human and Impact Investing Australia on how to invest to achieve gender equity, racial equity, diversity and inclusion.
- Field Guide to Impact Investing: For Australian Charitable Trusts & Foundations
The Impact Investing Hub’s Field Guide provides practical strategies and support for Australian charitable trusts and foundations that use, or are interested in using, impact investing to amplify the impact they can make in their communities and the world more broadly, and also includes details of recent deals, market trends, and initiatives to grow the ecosystem.
Global and international:
- Sweef Capital Gender ROI™
A tool for funders, investors and businesses wishing to apply a Gender Lens to their investments and operations, it has been developed to help identify and address gender barriers and enablers and relative performance against other organisations, industries and sectors. The tool provides a common language around gender, and clear systems and processes with which to translate aspirations into superior financial performance and positive social, economic and environmental impact. - Gender Lens Investing Framework
This framework from the Criterion Institute lays out a transformative set of standards for Gender Lens Investing—designed to shift how finance analyses and investment decisions shape power, equity, and inclusion. For investors, funders, and institutions ready to move beyond intention to practice, these standards offer a roadmap toward more equitable, systemic change. - Gender Equality Funds is a tool for investors who want their capital to support meaningful gender equity. Backed by Equileap’s rigorous Gender Equality Scorecard, this platform lets you compare and assess how mutual funds and ETFs stack up on gender equality—across metrics such as leadership balance, equal pay, transparency and workplace policies.
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The ecosystem:
Who is doing what?
Australia:
- Apropela supports women entrepreneurs by opening up influential business networks. The Apropela model is simple and unique – events where carefully selected women outline their companies’ ambitions and challenges, and then explain their ‘Asks’ to an invited audience of prominent and powerful business leaders (Connectors). Interested parties then make connections and facilitate further introductions to relevant contacts in their address book.
- Capital Human is a cohort of interdisciplinary specialists, subject matter experts and experienced business leaders who are committed to correcting gender- and race-based disadvantage. Backed by data and deep sector expertise, they design tailored solutions and capacity strengthening to support and improve operations, organisational objectives and financial outcomes, working with organisations to translate these successes into long-term outcomes towards gender equality and sustainable impact.
- Coralus is a community of changemakers working on initiatives, projects and businesses making transformational impact. They are designed to leverage all forms of capital that have laid dormant in traditional structures, undervalued for decades, by collectively practicing different ways of doing things for a better now and a new inheritance. Members offer and access resources at their own pace, creating a self-regenerating, pay-it-forward pool of skills, connections, funds, and support then used to advance ventures and the collective doing world changing work. The Coralus community in Australia is made up of over 150 Australian investors and is making history by supporting an all-indigenous cohort in 2024 led by Carol Vale, CEO and co-founder of Murawin, a national consultancy committed to social justice and empowerment of First Nations communities and other marginalised groups.
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- DFAT’s Australian Development Investments (ADI) is a AUD250 million impact investment fund that expands the Australian Government’s capacity to mobilise private sector investment into small and medium enterprises in the region create climate and gender outcomes.
- Equity Clear is an Australian initiative born in 2024 from a group of investors (Scale Investors, Alberts, and Giant Leap) dedicated to fostering diversity and inclusion in the startup world. Their vision is to build a fairer startup ecosystem that drives inclusive access to capital and opportunity. Their mission centers on collecting and publishing pipeline and investment data because “we can’t change what we don’t measure”. If you are a Venture Fund, Family Office or syndicate that regularly invests in early-stage startups, sign up to Equity Clear to be part of the journey to a more equitable startup ecosystem.
- Impact Club is Australia’s first impact investing network created for wholesale investors who want to deploy capital to create positive social and environmental impact. As a network, they aggregate global lessons and examples from impact investing and seek to create innovative new models of impact investment. They aim to bridge the gap between an investor’s intentions and actions. More than 42% of members associated with the Impact Club are women, with a large number of those actively investing in women-led businesses.
- Impact Investing Australia is an independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to accelerating the growth of impact investing in Australia and participating in international efforts to grow the market globally. Since its establishment in 2014 Impact Investing Australia has developed market infrastructure, grown market participation and influenced government policy – their vision is for a healthy, equitable and prosperous Australia delivered through a dynamic market for investments with a diversity of players and products – where every dollar invested builds a better world. They provide a range of resources, case studies and networks for investors and enterprises.
- The Impact Investing Hub supports the growth of the Australian impact investing community by providing an inclusive platform that educates, inspires and connects. Investors, advisors, social enterprises and charities benefit from a range of free online resources, education as well as online and in-person events. Its Impact Investor Directory has been developed to improve transparency of the Australian impact ecosystem. The directory aims to provide users with better visibility of the impact-focused investment funds, investors and advisors that have a presence in Australia; and to help those seeking capital to understand the potential sources of capital and advice available.
- SBE is the flagship NFP organisation supporting women entrepreneurs who are transforming industries. Since 2012, SBE Australia has been providing women with access to tools, networks and knowledge. They help women build and scale global, sustainable businesses.
- Scale Investors– Scale Investors is Australia’s first and only network of angel investors committed to investing in and empowering exceptional women entrepreneurs. Their network provides sophisticated angel investors access to bolster innovative, gender-diverse teams in early stage startups. They are committed to investing in women at the pre-seed and seed stage.
- Sefa (Social Enterprise Finance Australia) is a social finance provider and field builder, established in 2011 aims to create positive social, cultural and environmental impact whilst generating financial return for its investors. Sefa has unlocked more than $100 million of capital from the impact investing sector, and the Sefa team has disbursed $40 million in loans through almost 50 deals. Sefa’s work continues across impact areas including crisis & affordable housing, education, arts, community enterprises, Indigenous and disability organisations. Sefa is about to release a framework for GLI which they have been working on since their reflections in June 2022, Investing in equity with a gender lens: a practitioner’s reflections.
- Shebacks.me is born from the momentum of the Coralus (formerly known as SheEO) movement, a passionate group of Activators united with a shared vision of a more inclusive entrepreneurial future. Their initial mission was to empower female and non-binary founders through innovative revenue financing options. They have expanded their offerings to introduce an Angel Syndicate program that invites their investor community to come together, further championing the visions of female and non-binary founders. It is an ecosystem opening up dilutive and non-dilutive capital pathways for the ventures of women & non-binary folk in Australia, New Zealand & the wider Asia Pacific region.
- Women owned enterprise loan funds (WOELF) – An entity inspired by the Coralus model, set up to provide loan funds to women owed enterprises, “the right capital at the right time for Women, by Women…”. The fund invites women entrepreneurs excluded from traditional financing by providing fair, SDG-focused loans, boosting economic participation for women-owned SMEs in Australia. It also engages women as investors, creating an inclusive ecosystem where women drive and benefit from sustainable growth, fostering a self-sustaining cycle of empowerment and impact. The WOELF Pack is led by co-chairs Lisa Siganto and Mary-Anne Anderson.
Global and international:
- 2X Global is a global membership and field-building organisation for investors, capital providers, and intermediaries working in public and private markets, across both developed and emerging economies. They have a range of resources for investing with a gender and broader diversity and equity lens, and have helped to catalyse billions of gender-smart investing dollars since 2018.
- AVPN is Asia’s #1 social investment network. They are a leading ecosystem builder that works to increase the flow of capital towards impact in Asia, ensuring that resources are most effectively deployed. They help members connect with each other, learn from one another, and lead the sector to achieve systemic change. Their 5 pillars of work: mobilising capital, building impact communities, creating resources and tools, running an Academy, and organising events to distil learnings and best practices for practitioners.
- Catalyst is spearheading the workplace equity movement with global companies headquartered in the US, Canada, and Europe, to drive change at all levels. They provide generalised research and tools helpful to investors when looking at gender lens best practice within an organisation to support Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
- Criterion Institute is a nonprofit think tank dedicated to expanding what is seen as possible for using finance as a tool for social change. They provide a range of resources to assist investors and funds seeking to apply a gender lens.
- GIIN’s Gender Lens Investing Initiative (GIIN) provides a global knowledge hub for gender lens investing.
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- Equileap is a leading data provider for gender equality and diversity & inclusion, providing research and publications aimed at increasing gender awareness and supporting companies in their good practices. They also track other research indicating the connection between gender lens investing and financial returns.
- European Women in VC is a community of over 1000 senior female venture capital investors from all over Europe and beyond. Depending on geography, female cheque writers represent only between 5% and 15% of angel and VC investors, while female founders receive only 2% of VC money. They are on the mission to change this status quo. They recently published their 4th comprehensive European Women in VC report, “BEYOND RETURNS: Venture and growth investing fuel sustainability & societal change” to demonstrate the broad and transformative impact of European venture capital.
- Investing in Women focuses on accelerating women’s economic empowerment across Southeast Asia. It is an initiative by the Australian Government to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth in targeted countries, by fostering equitable opportunities within the private sector.
- Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) are pioneers in impact investing and global leaders in sustainability, transforming the financial system to empower women, the environment, and underserved communities in the global market. Their mission is to create a billion sustainable livelihoods through impact investing by 2030. They built the world’s largest crowdfunding platform for impact investing, operated award-winning enterprise technical assistance programs, created innovative financial products such as the Women’s Livelihood Bond™ Series and established an Impact Institute and Research & Advisory to build the sustainable investing market.
- Since 1979, Women’s World Banking has provided low-income women around the world with the financial tools and confidence they need to participate equally in their societies and economies. They partner with financial institutions, service providers, policymakers, investors, and donors to bring women-centered products, services, marketing practices, and policies to market. Through GLI, WAM has invested approximately $100M in a total of 21 inclusive financial institutions across Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, MENA, and Latin America, bringing our total women served by portfolio companies to approximately 8.5M.
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