The XX Edge: Unlocking Higher Returns and Lower Risk

In The XX Edge, Patience Marime-Ball and Ruth Shaber envision a new paradigm of gender-focused investing where more women are placed in decision-making roles and able to optimize their skills across all capital markets—leading to higher returns for individual investors and greater economic growth.

There’s a simple but often overlooked investment strategy to earning higher returns—include women as financial decision-makers within your organization or team. That’s The XX Edge. 

Seasoned executives and investors Patience Marime-Ball and Ruth Shaber demonstrate the new paradigm where women are at the center of investing as agents and actors—not just as beneficiaries.

If you manage investments—either your own or others'—you’ll want to understand the data and discover the financial power of The XX Edge:

• Gender-inclusive teams are 21% more likely to see outperformance in profitability relative to peers 
• Female CFOs deliver a 6% increase in profits and an 8% stock performance bump compared to overall performance under male predecessors
• New companies with a female founder performed 63% better than those with all-male teams over an observed ten-year period 
• Women-run hedge funds outperformed the average of larger hedge funds by a margin of 6% over a six-and-a-half-year period

 

You’ll discover the inherent gender differences between women and men and why these differences make women excellent financial decision makers and investment collaborators. Patience and Ruth unpack the evidence that proves this point across all asset classes.

The XX Edge shows that when women make financial decisions and apply their skills across all capital markets, it leads to higher returns for individual investors and greater economic growth—a true win-win for all.

 

Patience Marime-Ball has more than two decades of investment experience across capital markets, including debt and equity financing, large scale infrastructure, distressed assets, as well as venture stage opportunities. Previously, Patience was Principal Investment Officer and Global Head of Banking on Women at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) where she developed the Banking on Women business; Patience co-developed the first-ever gender bond issued on the Uridashi market. She is the founder and CEO of Women of the World Endowment, an investment nonprofit focused on centralizing women as economic, environmental, and social changemakers while delivering market-rate, risk adjusted returns and impact at scale.

Patience holds a JD from the Pritzker School of Law and an MBA from Kellogg at Northwestern University.

Ruth Shaber, MD is the founder and president of the Tara Health Foundation, which promotes health, well-being, and opportunity for women and girls through innovative evidence-informed programs. She is also the co-founder and board chair of Rhia Ventures, a group of foundations and investors that collaborate to bring new types of capital and enterprise to the field of reproductive health in the United States. Ruth had a robust career as an Obstetrician and Gynecologist at Kaiser Permanente from 1990 to 2012. 

Ruth was featured in Forbes 2020 Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit—and Pushing for Change for her contributions to the field of impact investing.  

Ruth holds an MD from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Yale University