Target 5.a: Equal rights to economic resources and property
Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws
Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
Why shareholder democracy is helpful
Equal rights to land, property, inheritance and financial services are matters of national law. Banks, payment networks and mobile-money providers, however, decide whether women can use financial services once entitled. The World Bank's Global Findex 2025 reports about 700 million women still lack a financial account, with insufficient funds, fees and distance as leading barriers. It finds that in Sub-Saharan Africa women are 12 points less likely to have any account yet equally likely to own a mobile money account. Owners of financial firms can press for product design and outreach that reach women. Arjuna Capital's bank-sector engagements show the sector responds to proxy pressure. Land and inheritance reform belongs to legislatures, so owners help at the margin.
How this was scoredHelpful
Helpful. Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
No shareholder advocacy found yet
We looked and found nothing that met our standard, which is a source we opened and confirmed. No shareholder proposal, investor coalition engagement or voting policy was located that addresses women's access to financial services, land, property or inheritance as this target frames it. Arjuna Capital, the organization named in the rationale, is documented engaging banks on gender pay gap disclosure rather than on women's access to financial products; that record is filed under target 5.1.
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.