Many studies have shown that women tend to invest more conservatively than men. Their approach can pay off when markets are volatile.
Major stock indexes have zigzagged since the war with Iran began on February 28, before rebounding to record highs last week. Amid these fluctuations, research shows that women are more likely than men to adopt long-term buy-and-hold investment strategies.
Mary Ellen Iskenderian, president and CEO of Women’s World Bank, said women are generally considered to be more risk-averse than men when it comes to investing. But they are often “worth the risk,” she says.
Iskenderian said, “Ideas like risk aversion are very gendered. A woman may not have the same risk profile, so that doesn’t make her disadvantageous, it makes her smarter.”
Women outperform men in the long run because they maintain their portfolio allocation, as opposed to frequent trading, which can lead to poor performance over the long term.
In fact, female investors tend to outperform men by 40 basis points, according to a study by Fidelity Investments based on an annual performance analysis of 5.2 million accounts from January 2011 to December 2020. Fidelity says this trend continues.
A separate 2025 study by McKinsey & Company also found that women prefer stable investments and tend to take a more cautious approach to money, prioritizing long-term financial security.
“One of the biggest misconceptions about women investors is that women are emotional, but that’s not really the case,” says Alex Roca, a certified financial planner and organizer of Fidelity’s financial education initiative, Women Talk Money.
That conservative mindset extends beyond investing. A separate 2025 Women and Money Study by Fidelity found that nearly half of women (42%) cut back on non-essential spending in the past year, primarily in response to economic uncertainty. A similar proportion of women surveyed said they would commit to saving more and paying down debt over the next year.
“Women tend to prioritize long-term security over short-term gratification,” Roca said, adding that approach is “very important in any economic environment.”
First of all, “women tend to be better savers than men,” Roca says. As a result, she said, women are more willing to go about things in an “analytical way” when it comes to investing their money, doing more research and honing their strategies.
“They have a plan and they are sticking to that plan,” she said.
“Throw away your assets”
According to a 2020 McKinsey research report, by 2030, women will own approximately two-thirds of personal wealth in the United States, representing the largest transfer of wealth between men and women in history.
Iskenderian said women hold a large share of the country’s wealth and are increasingly successful in their ability to manage it.
But with unprecedented economic benefits available, “representation really matters,” she says.
Iskenderian encourages women to leverage their growing wealth to find the right financial advisor to enhance their long-term investment strategy, and advises against settling for professionals who don’t align with their values and approach.
“I encourage any woman to make the most of her weight,” she said. “Throw away your assets.”
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