CEO AND CFO GENDER AND THE QUALITY OF FINANCIAL REPORTING

Men and women exhibit significantly different attitudes, beliefs, and actions. These differences may cause men and women to react differently when working in the business world. This study examines the relationship between the gender of the CEO and CFO of a firm and the quality of that firm’s financial reporting. I hypothesize that firms who employ a female CEO and a female CFO will have higher quality financial reporting compared to those firms that employ a male CEO and a male CFO. The results show that firms with female CEOs or CFOs show signs of lower abnormal accruals compared to firms with male CEOs and CFOs. However, when a firm employs a female CEO and a female CFO there is no statistically significant difference from firms that employ at least one female as either the CEO or CFO. These results suggest that firms that have at least one female as the CEO or CFO have higher financial reporting quality