Is Manager Gender Important in the Performance of Mutual Funds?

We investigate whether there are differences in characteristics and performance of mutual funds caused by the manager’s gender. Through examining a large sample of U.S. domestic equity mutual fund, we find some evidence that suggests female managers have a lower risk tolerance than males. This leads to the observation that females tend to hold a higher total number of assets (stocks) and fewer assets in their top 10 holdings than do male managers. We then analyze performance within funds over time in order to evaluate the impact of changes in management’s gender composition on funds’ performance. We find some evidence that the percentage of female managers managing a fund is negatively related to the fund’s performance over time