Women entrepreneurs consistently raise far less investor funding than men. In this study, we consider how women’s use of gender-similar language may influence investor decisions on venture pitches. Contrary to theories of communicative style and gender, we find women do not apply linguistic styles traditionally attributed to women in crafting their pitches. Instead, women entrepreneurs use language similar to their male counterparts when pitching to investors. Consistent with gender role congruity theory, we found that a masculine linguistic style is generally more effective in pitching situations, with limitations. Overly masculine language had a negative impact for both male and female entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest women entrepreneurs have a clear understanding of the power of the spoken language and the impact of the words they use when pitching investors for funding.

女企业家始终筹集的投资资金远少于男性。在这项研究中，我们考虑了女性使用性别相似的语言如何影响风险投资人的投资者决定。与交际风格和性别理论相反，我们发现女性没有采用传统上归因于女性的语言风格来制作自己的音调。相反，女企业家向投资者推销时使用的语言与男性企业家相似。与性别角色一致性理论相一致，我们发现，男性化的语言风格通常在有局限的情况下更有效地推销。过于男性化的语言对男性和女性企业家都有负面影响。我们的研究结果表明，女企业家对口头语言的力量以及在吸引投资者筹集资金时所用单词的影响有清晰的了解。