A new study from finance management platform OneStream showed that companies with a female CFO increased shareholder value by an average of 4.5% annually, 0.2% higher than their industries overall.
But even with this outpaced performance, the percentage of female CFOs has been stubbornly static. Since 2011, the number of CFO seats at Global Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies held by women has remained stuck at 25%.
OneStream looked at the stock performance of US, Europe, and UK Global Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies, comparing those with female CFOs to industry averages. The company also looked at the LinkedIn profiles of 346 CFOs, 86 of them women, to map out the differences in career paths, and sent a survey to 700 senior finance professionals, half men and half women, to get qualitative context.
US companies saw an average revenue growth of 7.3% after appointing a female CFO, while those in Europe and the UK saw higher increases of 10.6% and 12.8%. As for specific sectors, energy organizations with women CFOs performed 2.8% better than the stock market, and those in the health sector performed 4.7% better.
Underperforming companies that hired women as CFOs went on to see total shareholder return improve by an average of 10%, relative to industry benchmarks, compared with the return under the previous CFOs.
“In my experience, women are often handed leadership roles in times of crisis because they’re seen as detail-oriented, thoughtful in their approach, and relentlessly hard-working,” Hope King, founder of Macro Talk, said in the report.
OneStream’s research also found women were more likely to align with “financial guardian” or “strategic architect” personas in their LinkedIn profiles. These archetypes prioritize risk tolerance, strategic planning, and transparency, according to OneStream. Male CFOs were more likely to identify with “digital operator” and “resilient reformer” personas more focused on technology.
But men weren’t the only ones thinking about technology. Female CFOs viewed AI as a potential equalizer. While it typically takes women three years longer than men to reach the CFO chair (18 years, versus 15 for men), 83% of women CFOs said automation could diversify the paths into the position, and 69% felt it was supporting personal career growth.
This report was originally published by CFO Brew.
