Path evolution on gender reporting. Early reflections

Over the past decade, international organisations, national authorities, businesses, and researchers have shown a growing interest in gender issues, and various EU legislative initiatives are being raised. One of these is the issuance of the EU Directive 2014/95 on non-financial and diversity information—NFID (EU ) that requires that large European companies, which are public-interest entities, provide, among others, information on types of policy used and the results achieved regarding gender disclosure. At the end of 2022, the EU issued Directive 2022/2464 on Corporate Sustainability Reporting (CSRD), which amended Directive 2014/95 (EU ). The new Directive expands the number of companies required to prepare a sustainability report, providing the mandatory adoption of sustainability standards issued by the EU, called the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The CSRD aims to improve the flow of information on the sustainability performance of companies. This paper analyzes the changes in the Directive, examining the factors that have influenced them. It also provides an initial reflection on potential changes businesses may need to consider in their organisational aspects. The aim is to offer a comprehensive understanding of the evolving landscape of EU Directives and their implications for businesses. A comparative analysis across directives is carried out to analyse the changes in gender reporting contained in the NFID. To this end, we examine the quality, quantity and modalities of information presentation related to women, comparing, on one side, the NFID requirements and, on the other side, the CSRD. This analysis permits the investigation of the reasons for specific changes in progress. The reasons for these changes are also the result of different regulations. The analyses highlight a significant increase in the disclosure requirements on gender equality in the CSRD, which aligns with the principle of equal treatment between women and men that inspired European legislation. In this regard, the CSRD requirements are consistent with the Pay Transparency Directive, which aims to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for men and women, the prohibition of discrimination, and pay transparency mechanisms. Thus, both Directives contribute to the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women in the world, as established in Objective 5 of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Thus, the reporting changes required by the gender equality directives can reasonably be expected to impact business processes and structures significantly. These changes are of such importance and extent that they may imply the need for companies to equip themselves with specific organisational units capable of managing and measuring continuous financial flows using adequate metrics.