Women tend to be ‘risk-appropriate’ investors, expert says: How that helps them in volatile markets

Many studies show that women tend to invest more conservatively than men. In times of wild market swings, their approach can pay off.

Since the Feb. 28 start of the war with Iran, the major stock indexes have zigzagged, dropping before rebounding to reach all-time highs last week. Amid such volatility, women are more likely to adopt a long-term, buy-and-hold investing strategy compared to their male counterparts, research shows.

When it comes to investing, women are generally thought of as more risk-averse than men, said Mary Ellen Iskenderian, president and CEO of Women’s World Banking. However, they are often “risk-appropriate,” she said.

“Ideas like risk-averse have become very gendered,” Iskenderian said, “and because a woman might not have the same risk profile, that doesn’t make her adverse, it makes her smart.”

Because they maintain their portfolio allocations — as opposed to frequent trading, which can stunt performance over time — women outperform men in the long run.

In fact, women investors tend to beat men by 40 basis points, according to research by Fidelity Investments, based on an analysis of annual performance for 5.2 million accounts from January 2011 to December 2020. According to Fidelity, these trends have continued.

A separate 2025 study by McKinsey & Co. also found that women tend to prefer stable investments and adopt a more cautious approach to their money, prioritizing long-term financial security.

“One of the biggest misconceptions about women investors is that they are emotional, and that is just not the case,” said certified financial planner Alex Roca, the host of Fidelity’s Women Talk Money, a financial education initiative.

That conservative mentality extends beyond investing, as well. Nearly half of women — 42% — cut down non-essential spending in the past year, largely in response to economic uncertainty, according to a separate 2025 Women & Money study by Fidelity. A similar share of women polled said they were committed to saving more and paying down debt in the year ahead.

“We’re seeing women prioritize long-term security over short-term gratification,” Roca said — and that approach “is so important in any economic environment.”

For starters, “women tend to be better savers than men,” Roca said. It follows that when it comes to investing their assets, women proceed in an “analytical way,” she said — they are willing to do more research and hone a strategy.

“They are making a plan and sticking to that plan,” she said.

By 2030, roughly two-thirds of the private wealth in the U.S. will be held by women — which will be the largest wealth transfer by gender in history, according to a 2020 research report by McKinsey.  

As women control a large and growing share of wealth in this country, they are increasingly successful in their ability to manage it, said Iskenderian.

However, amid unprecedented financial gains, “representation really matters,” she said.

Iskenderian recommends that women use their growing wealth as leverage to find the right financial advisor to shore up a long-term investment strategy — and not settle for a professional who may not align with their values or approach.

“I would advise any woman to throw her weight around,” she said. “Throw your assets around.”

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