New analysis suggests that women who invest their money tend to secure slightly higher long-term returns than men, even though far fewer women invest in the first place. According to a report from consumer finance website Boring Money, only about 26% of UK women hold investments, compared with roughly 41% of men, a gap that persists across generations. Teleri Evans, a 25-year-old civil servant from Cardiff at the time she started, built up £40,000 by the age of 33 — including £8,000 in investment returns — which she and her partner used towards a house deposit earlier this year.
Evans began by saving into a Help To Buy ISA before moving into a stocks and shares Lifetime ISA a couple of years later.
"I saved aggressively, and lived at my mum's for half of that time, so I could save as close as possible to the maximum £4,000 per year into Lifetime ISA," she says.
Why do fewer women invest than men?
Gillian Fleming, co-founder and managing director of UK-based Mint Ventures, a women-led angel investment firm, says the gap is largely a matter of culture rather than ability.
"Men historically have been more likely to make family investment decisions, and women have also historically not owned the balance of wealth, but that is changing now," she says. "Also, money and wealth creation is not a topic that women often discuss, and we would like to change that."
Evans says attitudes are shifting among her peers.
"Investing is definitely something that women are talking about more, which is always a good thing," she says. "That's the case with my friendship group."
The imbalance extends beyond who chooses to invest at all. According to research from McKinsey, an estimated 53% of assets controlled by women remain unmanaged, compared with 45% of assets controlled by men, pointing to a substantial wealth-management gap between the sexes.
Do women really get better returns?
Yes, according to several separate studies, though the size of the gap varies depending on the data set. Fidelity International's analysis of its personal investing customers found that over three years, women recorded cumulative returns of 50%, compared with 47% for men, though the firm does not identify why the gap exists. Earlier Fidelity research cited in a 2021 New York Times report found female clients had outperformed male peers by 0.4 percentage points annually over a decade. A separate study by Warwick Business School, examining 2,800 investors, found women outperformed men by 1.8 percentage points over three years, with women's annual returns sitting 1.94% above the FTSE 100 compared with just 0.14% for men, according to Warwick Business School's analysis. Even a Swedish regulatory study found a similar pattern on a smaller scale: the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority reported women's stock portfolios returned 0.13% more than men's on average, per its analysis.
What explains the difference in performance?
Much of the answer appears to come down to how often investors buy and sell. Data from Barclays shows that women trade at roughly half the frequency of men, a pattern that business psychologist Joanna Floyd, of London-based The Work Psychologists, links to patience and caution rather than passivity.
"Studies show that male investors trade more than women, chasing higher returns, but women actually get higher returns," she says. "The restraint that keeps women out of the market in the first place is the very same thing that rewards them once they are in it."
This caution shows up in broader financial decision-making too. In an earlier YouGov survey on financial risk-taking, 73% of respondents said they would rather take a guaranteed £50,000 than a 50/50 chance of winning £1m, with women particularly likely to opt for the certain sum. reporting on a 2021 survey found a related pattern: when asked what they would do with £1,000, more women than men said they would simply save it or place it into an ISA, according to ' analysis of the gender investment gap.
Do men and women invest in different things?
Fleming says women also tend to spread their money across a wider mix of sectors rather than concentrating on high-growth bets.
"Women are often accused of being more risk adverse, we call it more risk aware," she says. "Certainly from speaking to male investors their main focus is on the rate of return."
"Men are more likely to invest in technology companies for their higher potential returns, whereas women want to invest in a broader range, from retail to food and drink, health and beauty, fem tech and creative industries."
That pattern echoes wider trends among younger investors: an earlier report on young investors in Australia, South Korea and Singapore found many are piling heavily into technology stocks as artificial intelligence fuels sharp gains, though also sharp swings.
Anna Macdonald, investment strategy director at financial services company Hargreaves Lansdown, agrees that women weigh their choices carefully.
"Women appear to place relatively greater weight on where their money is going and what impact it might have, as well as the reassurance that an investment is right for them," she says. "Our research suggests men are...more readily attracted by the potential financial return."
Jemma Slingo, pensions and investment specialist at investment firm Fidelity International, says female investors often frame their decisions around personal milestones.
"[Female investors] appear more likely to connect investing with real-life goals, from building emergency savings to looking after children," she says.
Why do women generally have less to invest?
Part of the disparity in participation stems from earnings rather than appetite. Women in the UK typically have less disposable money to invest than men because the gender pay gap means they earn less on average across their careers. This financial pressure is compounded for younger savers generally; separate analysis of UK data on today's 20-somethings suggests they face weaker housing, job and wage prospects than previous generations did at the same age, making disciplined saving efforts like Evans's more difficult to replicate.
Macdonald argues the investment industry itself bears some responsibility for the participation gap.
"[The investment sector] needs to do a better job of making investing feel accessible, relevant and connected to people's own goals and values," she says. "Addressing this would be good for women's long-term financial resilience and for the UK economy."
Key Facts
- About 26% of UK women invest, compared with 41% of men, according to Boring Money.
- Teleri Evans, 33, saved £40,000 by combining a Help To Buy ISA and a Lifetime ISA, including £8,000 in returns.
- Fidelity International found female customers' three-year cumulative returns were 50%, versus 47% for men.
- Warwick Business School found women outperformed men by 1.8 percentage points over three years across a study of 2,800 investors.
- Women trade roughly half as often as men, according to Barclays data.
