Women tend to be ‘risk-appropriate’ investors: Women’s World Banking CEO
Many studies show that women are more prone to it. invest more cautiously than men. Their approach can work in times of sharp market fluctuations.
Since the start of the war with Iran on February 28, major stock indexes zigzagged, then rebounded to hit all-time highs last week. Amid this volatility, women are more likely to adopt a long-term, buy-and-hold investment strategy than their male counterparts. research shows.
When it comes to investing, women are generally thought to be more risk-averse than men, said Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women’s World Banking. But he said they were generally “risk-appropriate.”
“Ideas like risk aversion have become quite sexist, and just because a woman may not have the same risk profile, that doesn’t make her negative, it makes her smart,” Iskenderian said. he said.
Women outperform men over the long term because they maintain their portfolio allocations rather than frequent trading, which degrades performance over time.
In fact, female investors tend to outperform men by 40 basis points, according to Fidelity Investments’ research based on annual performance analysis for 5.2 million accounts from January 2011 to December 2020. These trends are continuing, according to Fidelity.
A separate 2025 study by McKinsey & Co. It also found that women tend to prefer stable investments and take a more cautious approach to their money, prioritizing long-term financial security.
“One of the biggest misconceptions about female investors is that they’re emotional, and that’s not the case,” said certified financial planner Alex Roca, host of Women Talk Money, a financial education initiative from Fidelity.
This conservative mindset extends beyond investing, too. Nearly half (42%) of women cut non-essential spending last year, largely in response to economic uncertainty, according to a separate 2025 report Women and Money research by Fidelity. A similar number of women surveyed said they were determined to save more and pay off their debts in the coming year.
“We’re seeing women prioritize long-term security over short-term gratification,” Roca said, and that approach is “very important in any economic environment.”
For starters, “women tend to save better than men,” Roca said. She noted that women go about investing their assets in an “analytical way,” willing to do more research and develop a strategy.
“They make a plan and they stick to that plan,” he said.
‘Throw away your assets’
Nearly two-thirds of private wealth in the US by 2030 According to a 2020 research report, this will be the largest wealth transfer by gender in history. McKinsey.
Because women control a large and growing share of the wealth in this country, they are also becoming increasingly successful in their ability to manage it, Alexandrian said.
But amid unprecedented financial gains, “representation really matters,” he said.
Iskenderian recommends that women use their growing wealth as leverage to find the right financial advisor to support a long-term investment strategy and not settle for a professional who doesn’t align with their values or approach.
“I would advise every woman to pull her weight,” she said. “Throw your assets around.”
