Do Investors Pay Less Attention to Women (Fund Managers)?

We document a gender-based attention effect in the sensitivity of mutual fund flows to fund performance using individual-level fund data from a fintech platform in China. Investors increase (decrease) flows to funds following positive and strong (negative and weak) prior- month performance. However, although there is no significant difference in the performance of male and female managers, the sensitivity effect significantly weakens if the fund manager is female. The effect persists after controlling for managerial characteristics and fund objectives, as well as individual investor fixed effects. Simply put, investors pay less attention to female fund managers