Gender Bias Affects the Bottom Line

In response to the Harvard Business Review blog posting, "Why Stock Price Drops When Women Join the Board," NCRW President Linda Basch submitted the following comment:

Implying that companies rely on women to provide politically-correct ratios rather than valuable skills and approaches is unsupported by evidence. As we found in our report, "Women in Fund Management" , board diversity usually improves stock performance. But we also found that bias can make it difficult for women investment managers to attract investors (Journal of Financial Research XXVI (1), 1-18.). Still, Catalyst , Michel Ferrary at Ceram Business School and others show that women boost the bottom line despite bias. Hedge Fund Research Inc. found that women-owned funds delivered better annual returns than a broader composite of hedge funds over a ten year period. In an economy in need of innovative thinking and new strategic directions, gender bias is something we simply can't afford.