Companies run by women performed almost three times as well than those run by men , according to a new study . Cash invested only in Fortune 1000 stocks from companies with female CEOs had a return of 348 per cent over the past 12 years , researchers found . In the same period of time , a portfolio made up of stocks from the S & P500 index would have returned just 122 per cent . The discovery was made by finance technology company Quantopian , which ran two imaginary $ 100,000 investment funds using stock data from 2002-2014 . Bringing home the bacon : A study found that Fortune 1000 companies with female CEOs produced returns of 348 per cent from 2002 to 2014 , as shown in green on the graph above . For comparison , the S & P500 index , in blue , had a return of 122 per cent in the same period . Top of the pile : Mindy Grossman , CEO of HSNi ( left ) , Debra Cafaro of Ventas ( center ) and Marissa Meyer of Yahoo ! ( right ) all brought in substantial returns for shareholders during their tenures . At the end of the experiment , the women 's fund was calculated to be worth $ 440,158 , while the S & P fund was at $ 222,306 . The women 's fund would hold stocks by all Fortune 1000 companies with female CEOs for as long as the woman was at the head of the company . It would sell the stock whenever a woman left the top spot , and buy in to new companies which appointed women . Fewer than one in 20 major companies currently has a female CEO . According to a report by Fortune magazine , the best performers were HSNi , which runs the home shopping network , and Ventas , a healthcare company which runs housing estates for the elderly . HSNi has been run by Mindy Grossman since 2006 , and Ventas by Debra Cafaro for the whole 12-year period - both women returned more than 500 per cent on initial investments . Other high-performing female CEOs were Marissa Meyer at Yahoo ! , Linda Lang at Jack in the Box and Carol Meyrowitz at TJX , a homeware and clothing retailer . Some women dragged the pack down , however , including New York Times CEO Janet Robinson , whose eight-year tenure saw the company shed 80 per cent of its worth . There is no definitive explanation for why female CEOs apparently bring in so much more cash for investors . It has been suggested that typically female personality traits make for better corporate leaders . Kip Tindell , CEO of The Container Store , has made 70 per cent of his executives female . He told Business Insider : 'Emotional intelligence is the key to being really successful . People who have it keep their egos in check ; they 're comfortable with surrounding themselves with people better than them ... ' However , it has also been suggested that female leaders can feel pressure more than male counterparts . Mindy Grossman , one of the best-performing female CEOs of recent times , told Forbes that high-powered women are more at risk of burning out , too . She said : 'Being female , I ’ d say we have tendencies to want to be perfect at everything in every moment of everyday . The challenge is understanding how to allocate your time personally and professionally , and remembering you have to be a person too . ' Keeping on : Carol Meyrowitz , head of homeware and clothing retailer TJX , brought good returns for shareholders too . An exception to the rule was New York Times Company CEO Janet Robinson , who lost investors some 80 per cent of their cash . Kerrii Anderson , CEO at Wendy ’ s International also lost investors ' money in her tenure from 2006-08 . Karen Rubin , who helped build the simulation , said she believes the results are because of the so-called 'glass ceiling ' holding women back from big jobs . The result , she said , is that any women who wants to lead a huge company must be extremely competent - and so good financial performance follows . She told Fortune : 'There ’ s a lot of the theorizing around why the results are dramatically higher for the women , but most think it has to do with how hard women have to work to become CEO at such big companies in the first place ' . However , it has also been theorized that the results are also affected by the types of companies women have typically led - media , retail and consumer organizations - which benefited greatly in the recent economic upturn . The female-only index also crashed more steeply than the S & P500 during the 2008-09 recession , but remained worth more overall throughout - and rallied more strongly afterward .
Finance technology company plotted how companies with female CEOs performed from 2002 to 2014 . Imagined $ 100,000 was invested in Fortune 1000 companies led by women , vs performance of S & P500 index . Women 's index was ultimately worth $ 222,306 - return of 348 % - while the other was worth $ 440,158 , a 122 % return . High performing female CEOs included Yahoo ! 's Marissa Meyer and HSNi 's Mindy Grossman . Expert who ran experiment suggested results are because only most competent women make CEO .