The Relationship Between CEO Gender, Financial Performance, And Financial Management

Abstract

In recent years, the number of female Chief Executive Officers (CEO’s) at large firm’s has increased to the point that it is possible to statistically compare the performance and management characteristics of firms managed by CEO’s of different genders. This paper is an exploratory study that examines the relationship between CEO gender and the performance and management of publicly traded firms. We use a large dataset of annual Forbes CEO data, combined with Compustat data, covering the time period of 1997 to 2006. Our results show that CEO gender is related to a number of factors including inside ownership and return on assets.