--- title: New Study Proves That Hiring More Female Bosses Leads to Higher Profits description: A study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics and EY found a correlation between female leadership and company profits. canonical: https://time.com/4214118/female-boss-higher-profit/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-09T19:54:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:01:48.893Z og:title: New Study Proves That Hiring More Female Bosses Leads to Higher Profits og:description: The findings suggest that gender diversity leads to profitability og:url: https://time.com/4214118/female-boss-higher-profit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt821d0b72e9558d89/69887ccf196cf40d6603a40c/female-boss-ceo-higher-profits-study.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4926 og:image:height: 2771 og:image:alt: 114996129 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Study Proves That Hiring More Female Bosses Leads to Higher Profits twitter:description: The findings suggest that gender diversity leads to profitability twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt821d0b72e9558d89/69887ccf196cf40d6603a40c/female-boss-ceo-higher-profits-study.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A New Study Proves That Hiring More Female Bosses Leads to Higher Profits > Sponsored content. 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In the Loop is TIME's AI newsletter, built on original reporting and access to the people building and governing AI. It publishes Tuesdays and Fridays and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes TIME's In the Loop? Harry Booth, a tech reporter at TIME, writes In the Loop. #### Is In the Loop free? Yes. In the Loop is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Valentina Zarya / Fortune](https://time.com/author/fortune/) ## Valentina Zarya / Fortune Fortune Feb 9, 2016 7:54 PM UTC  US Dollar note folded to a upward trend line graph US Dollar note folded to a upward trend line graph Erik Dreyer—Getty Images by [Valentina Zarya / Fortune](https://time.com/author/fortune/) ## Valentina Zarya / Fortune Fortune Feb 9, 2016 7:54 PM UTC Still not convinced that [gender diversity](http://motto.time.com/4211704/super-bowl-2016-ads-women/) is good for the bottom line? Maybe this will do it. On Monday, the Peterson Institute for International Economics and professional services firm EY released a study that reveals a significant correlation between women in leadership and company profitability. The report found that companies with at least 30% female leaders had net profit margins up to 6 percentage points higher than companies with no women in the top ranks. Interestingly, it did not find any notable difference in the performance of female and male CEOs, and was unable to determine whether having female board members helped or hurt companies in any way. This report is not the first to find that gender diversity has a positive impact on profitability, though it is the most extensive. A frequently-cited 2015 report by [McKinsey & Co.](http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/why%5Fdiversity%5Fmatters) found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15% more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians. The report looked at overall diversity, and was limited to 366 public companies across in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and the U.K. Another popular piece of research, conducted in 2007 by diversity consultancy firm [Catalyst](http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/bottom-line-corporate-performance-and-womens-representation-boards), found that [_Fortune_ 500 companies](http://fortune.com/fortune500/) with at least three female directors have 42% higher return on sales and 53% higher return on equity. The new Peterson Institute/EY survey looked at nearly 22,000 public companies across 91 different countries in 2014—about half of which had no female executives. Moreover, 60% had no women on their boards and fewer than 5% had female CEOs. “There are two reasons why gender diversity at the top could matter,” Marcus Noland, EVP and director of studies at the Peterson Institute, wrote in an email to _Fortune_. “The first is that there is evidence that the presence of women contributes to functional or skill diversity among the leadership group enabling top management to more effectively monitor staff performance. The other is discrimination: If some firms discriminate against talented, hardworking, effective women, then they will be outperformed by rivals that don’t discriminate.” Another interesting finding: Paternity leave policies appear to be key to achieving gender parity in business. The ten countries with the greatest corporate gender balance—including countries in Scandinavia, Latvia, and Bulgaria—are not at the very top of the pack when it comes to government mandated maternity leave. However, there was a very strong correlation between countries with robust paternity leave policies and a strong gender balance in the workplace. The report’s hypothesis is that offering paternity leave increases expectations that men will take on a share of child care responsibilities. “It stands to reason that policies that allow child care needs to be met but do not place the burden of care explicitly on women increase the chances that women can build the business acumen and professional contacts necessary to qualify for a corporate board,” reads the report. _This_ [_article_](http://fortune.com/2016/02/08/women-leadership-profits/?iid=sr-link9) _originally appeared on_ [_Fortune.com_](http://www.fortune.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4214118/female-boss-higher-profit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4214118/female-boss-higher-profit/"},"headline":"A New Study Proves That Hiring More Female Bosses Leads to Higher Profits","datePublished":"2016-02-09T19:54:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:01:48.893Z","description":"And women everywhere responded with a collective, \"I told you so\"","url":"https://time.com/4214118/female-boss-higher-profit/","keywords":["motto","News","Earnings","Management","Companies","career"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt821d0b72e9558d89/69887ccf196cf40d6603a40c/female-boss-ceo-higher-profits-study.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Valentina Zarya / Fortune"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt821d0b72e9558d89/69887ccf196cf40d6603a40c/female-boss-ceo-higher-profits-study.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"114996129","caption":"114996129","creditText":"Erik Dreyer—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4214118/female-boss-higher-profit/","name":"A New Study Proves That Hiring More Female Bosses Leads to Higher Profits"}}]}] ```