MINNEAPOLIS, April 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - The winds of investing in the U.S. are shifting and women are a driving force behind the change. A recent client survey conducted by RBC Wealth Management – U.S. shows that responsible investing, namely Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), is gaining traction. Women are leading the charge for ESG investing and are more likely to have a positive outlook toward this growing investment trend.

London (CNN Business)A new report from the World Economic Forum estimates that attaining global gender parity will take nearly 136 years, up from its previous estimate of almost 100 years. WEF measures parity in four ways: economic participation and opportunity, education, health and political empowerment. Data examined by the organization showed that the gap in political empowerment has widened significantly since its 2020 report, while economic participation has improved only slightly.

Despite some progress, it will take women in North America approximately 61.5 years to have economic parity with men according to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report for 2021. Why it matters: Women in the U.S. have made strides in political representation, but they still lag behind men in job market participation and income, according to the report.

March 24 marks Equal Pay Day for women, the day that women have to work into 2021 to make what white, non-Hispanic men earned in 2020 alone. On average, women working full time, year-round are paid 82 cents for every dollar paid to men, according to the National Women's Law Center, a policy-focused organization that fights for gender justice.

March is National Women's History Month, but since women are pretty historic year-round, it begs the question: Why March? Is this month significant to women's history, or is it just an arbitrary month on the calendar? The answer involves a little bit of history and a little bit of coincidence.

Just before the 2020 recession, Black female professionals were advancing in the workplace. But according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in January 2021, Black female professionals' unemployment rate continued to increase, reaching 9.0% from 7.7% in December 2020. Compare this percentage to white female professionals' unemployment rate, which held steady from December 2020 at 5.3%.

In the highest ranks of corporate America, there are seven times as many male executive officers as female executive officers; and, at the CEO level, men outnumber women by almost 17 to one, according to a new report from Morningstar authored by Jackie Cook.

Black and Latina women continue to disproportionately struggle with the effects of the pandemic on the job market, according to a Feb. 10 study by WerkLabs, the data and insights division of The Mom Project. One-third of Black mothers and one-fourth of Latina mothers said they were unable to work remotely during the pandemic, compared to only one-tenth of both White and Asian mothers.

Even women who make it to the top ranks of U.S. corporations face a persistent pay gap compared with men in leadership roles, a new study of corporate filings found.