Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, September 11, 1994                   TAG: 9409120027
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: F-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By CAROL KLEIMAN CHICAGO TRIBUNE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A WOMEN'S FUND FINDS FIRMS THAT MEET ITS HIGH STANDARDS

But Amy Domini, adviser to the Pro-Conscious Women's Equity Mutual Fund in San Francisco, says there are such companies, and you can make money by investing in their stocks.

Domini is majority shareholder and portfolio manager of Loring, Wolcott & Coolidge, a Boston-based financial-services firm. She researches and suggests companies for investing by the Women's Equity fund.

Linda C.Y. Pei of Pro-Conscious Funds, a San Francisco investment advisory firm, asked Domini in 1992 to do the social research for the mutual fund, which Pei co-founded. Domini is known for her creation of the Domini Social Index, a listing of standards important to women, and the Domini Social Equity Fund, another mutual fund.

``It was quite an eye-opener to find that injustice to women in the workplace is so deeply buried,'' said Domini, author of ``Investing for Good'' (Harper/Business, $13). ``Only 40 percent of the Standard & Poor's firms listed were qualified for consideration. Many companies haven't done the simplest, basic steps to bring about equality.''

On the other hand, she found ``some fabulous and unexpected things, such as 40 companies totally run by women and women appointed to top positions through executive search.''

She points out that two of the five highest-paid officers at Northside Savings Bank in New York are women.

By the time the Women's Equity fund was launched in October, Domini had compiled ``a universe'' of 300 firms that meet the fund's standards on women in top positions, equal pay, sexual harassment and other policies, women vendors and charitable gifts.

Six new stocks are added each month to the list of possible investments, which range from 10 to 15 companies.

Initial investments in the fund totaled $80,000, but as of June, they had reached $796,774. Even though the stock market was down, the fund was up about 3 percent in total return to investors. A minimum investment in the fund is $2,500.

Companies in the portfolio that met Domini's women's equality standards and Pro-Conscious' financial standards include Whole Foods Market Inc., a natural-foods supermarket company based in Austin, Texas; Sotheby's Holdings, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., parent of the New York art-auction house; Hechinger Co., a hardware and building supplies firm based in Landover, Md.; and Echo Bay Mines Ltd., a Canadian mining firm whose U.S. operation is based in Denver.

``Echo Bay is especially interesting because it has an on-site, 24-hour child-care center (in Denver) and encourages the hiring of women miners,'' said Domini.

Though no top-ranking U.S. company is in the portfolio now, among those that Domini rates as qualified for consideration are Federal National Mortgage Corp. in Washington, D.C.; Gannett Co., a newspaper and broadcasting company based in Arlington, Va.; Avon Products Inc., the New York cosmetics and jewelry distributor; Lillian Vernon Corp., a catalog firm in New Rochelle, N.Y.; UNUM Corp., an insurance company in Portland, Maine; and Quaker Oats Co. of Chicago.

``I found that Quaker Oats has a high-ranking female officer who is Hispanic,'' Domini said. ``And 26 percent of the company's managers are female.'' That's a high percentage, she says, compared with an average of 18 percent in 1991 for the grocery products industry, as reported by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

``I actually feel that the women's movement is beginning to work,'' Domini said. ``Things are moving slowly, but I am greatly encouraged by some of the new hires I see out there. There is an integration of women into the corporate structure - because of tough legal battles fought by brave women - that there is no turning back from.''

Domini, a graduate of Boston University, where she studied economics, was a broker for 12 years. She says she was encouraged while growing up to be a teacher or a nurse and entered the financial world through the secretarial pool.

``The fund is turning the spotlight on the issue of discrimination against women, in the same way that divestiture in South Africa turned the spotlight on apartheid,'' Domini said. ``We're also educating the public, collecting data - and making money.''

For information about the Women's Equity Mutual Fund, call (800) 424-2295.