State Street Global's Q1 2018 Stewardship Activity Report recaps and updates on several key initiatives including its: (i) board gender diversity-focused Fearless Girl campaign (reported on here and prior), (ii) screening for compliance with the ISG Governance Principles as of March 2018 (reported on here), (iii) new voting guidelines that incorporate use of an "Abstain" vote on executive compensation (reported on here and here), and (iv) its approach to engaging with civilian firearm manufacturers and distributors (reported on here).
The Fearless Girl update is particularly noteworthy - both as concerns the progress to date, as well as the going-forward approach. Specifically, SSGA voted against directors at 500 companies that reportedly "failed to address board diversity in a meaningful way." Another 152 companies it targeted added at least one woman to their board and an additional 34 "committed to do so in the near future."
Further, the report indicates that in recognition of the fact that the dearth of gender diversity is not just a boardroom problem, SSGA plans to expand its gender diversity focus to corporate practices promoting diversity in all levels of management beginning with screening and engaging companies in the STOXX 6000 (Europe) and FTSE 350 indexes - the implication being that companies in other regions should prepare for management-level diversity scrutiny down the road.