A study by Calvert Impact Capital found that diversity in senior staff had a greater impact than the number of female directors or the gender of its founder.

“We saw a particularly strong relationship to women in leadership,” said Leigh Moran, Calvert’s director of strategy. “We think there’s a common misconception that incorporating gender is solely limited to investing in women-led businesses.”

In a study of its $23 billion global lending portfolio, Calvert determined that companies with the most women in senior leadership positions -- the people who report directly to the CEO -- delivered double the average annual return on equity over the last 11 years compared with the companies with the fewest.