Reimagining gender lens investing futures is both a reflection on the field today and a hopeful vision for where it could go, grounded in the real work of field builders across geographies and sectors. These practitioners continue to defend gender’s continued relevance to finance in the face of resistance. They are also expanding its role, reimagining its potential as a tool for change, and building the infrastructure needed to sustain that change over the next decade.

Criterion Institute has long defined field-building as the weaving together of ideas, people, and activities in ways that enable systems change. In this moment, the field of gender lens investing must act to both celebrate and support risk-takers. It must also bring to light overlooked wisdom and hold the space for multiple definitions of what ‘good’ looks like.

This report comes ten years after the first Criterion State of the field of gender lens investing report. In 2015, the field’s broad aim was to prove that gender mattered in investing. Today, field builders are asking bolder questions: How do we shift power? What does it look like to invest in healing, not just scaling the field? Which systems should be redesigned?

It is a snapshot of ambition rather than a map of all activity. It makes visible ideas, organizations and activities that don’t always attract headlines or capital. It invites funders to expand what they see as “fundable.” And it offers a broader story of what gender lens investing could be when defined by those closest to the work.