Performance of Female CEOs

Abstract

The authors examine the performance of companies led by women from January 1996 to December 2014. The results show that companies headed by women outperformed the U.S. market, as proxied by the S&P 1500 and Russell 3000 indexes. Firms with female CEOs have higher average and median monthly returns, higher risk (standard deviation of monthly returns), and higher risk-adjusted performance (Sharpe, Sortino, and Omega ratios). Female-led companies also have significantly positive alphas with both the Carhart four-factor model and the Fama–French five-factor model when they form equally weighted and value-weighted portfolios of these firms. These results indicate that firms led by women have created significant value for their investors during the period of our study.