In addition to compliance with applicable laws, companies are subject to what is sometimes called a social license to operate, that is, prevailing social expectations. The corporate responsibility to respect human rights is the baseline expectation for all companies in all situations. One of the parameters for judging CSR is the human cost of making a profit which is often profound. To put it simply, companies today need to assess the impact of their business activity on human beings at large and avoid gross violation or abuse of the inherent rights of man, i.e., human rights

The business benefits of including Gender and Human Rights in CSR are obvious:

• Reporting on gender helps companies in recruiting, retaining, and motivating female employees
• Gender impact reporting strengthens a company’s reputation as a “women-friendly” enterprise and can help attract consumers and investors that are driven by ethical interests
• Some companies improve brand-differentiation by targeting women customers or women’s interests groups

Three main drivers motivate firms towards addressing, and reporting on, gender equality:

• The Market – including consumers, investors, business customers, and labour market pressures
• Governments – including regulatory requirements and compliance with equal rights legislation and supplier diversity requirements for government contracts
• Civil Society – including those that look to maximize shared benefits to the corporation and community stakeholders, as well as media pressure

There is no concise global framework for gender and CSR reporting in place. The Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) Labour Practices and Decent Work core performance indicators, require companies to report:

1. ‘Total number and rate of employee turnover by age group, gender, and region’
2. ‘Composition of governance bodies and breakdown of employees per category according to gender, age group, minority group membership, and other indicators of diversity’
3. ‘Ratio of basic salary of men to women by employee category’. An additional indicator suggests reporting
4. ‘Benefits provided to full-time employees that are not provided to temporary or part-time employees, by major operations’

A broader understanding of gender and CSR extends to other business dimensions and impacts to consider, such as -

• Gender impacts of products and services.
• Innovative approaches to product development using gender information.
• Gender issues in supply chain labour practices.
• Gender issues as part of company community and human rights impacts.
• Community development and philanthropy efforts that build on input from women and respond to gender-specific needs in the community.