There was much eye-rolling after Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said companies need more “masculine energy”, but is this view shared by market analysts?
A recent study examined nearly 5,000 earnings calls from US companies between 2011 and 2019. It notes men and women speak differently, with women much more likely to use uptalk – a rise in tonal pitch at the end of a declarative sentence. Analyst downgrades and share-price falls are more likely when a female chief executive uses uptalk, the researchers note.
Importantly, female chief executives “who employ minimal gendered speech” – essentially, women who adopt a more male intonation – “see no such effects”. Maybe analysts just don’t like uptalk? No – male chief executives who use uptalk aren’t punished.
“Analysts seem to be a misogynistic bunch if you believe the results,” comments Liberum strategist and blogger Joachim Klement. It’s a “real shame”, he says, if a female executive “must act like a man” to be taken seriously by analysts.
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