CERAM’S Human Resources Professor, Michel Ferrary research shows that firms with a higher ratio of women in management have better resisted the financial crisis. The more women on a company’s senior management team, the less its share price fell in 2008, according to an analysis of companies from the French CAC 40 stock exchange index. The stock prices of companies led by executive teams with 38% or more women declined less than the CAC 40 average of 42.7%, while stocks of companies with more male-dominated management teams dropped more than the average. Hermès was the only large company whose share price rose (16.8%) and it has the second highest percent of female executives (55%).

As Ferrary points out, women behave and manage in a different way than men. Women tend to avoid rick and to focus on a long term perspective. By having a large proportion of female managers, the risk taking behaviour of their male colleagues is balanced. And as the research may suggest, this balance is crucial to business performance!

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