Benefits of Having a Female CFO

We examine gender differences in the language of CFOs that participate in quarterly earnings calls. Female executives are more concise, less optimistic, are clearer, use fewer idioms or clichés, and provide more numbers in their speech. These differences are particularly strong in the more spontaneous Questions and Answers (QA) section of the calls. The tone of female CFOs is positively associated with future earnings surprises, while for male CFOs it is more related to future firm expansion. Finally, firms with female CFOs earn higher abnormal returns around the call date than those with male CFOs after controlling for variables that are related to the contents of the call.