Previous research has found that female owned businesses generally under-perform male owned businesses on a variety of measures such as sales and profit. However, many of these studies have used limited data sets and have, therefore, been unable to control adequately for the potential systematic differences between male and female controlled businesses.The main advantage of this study, over previously reported research, is that it uses a database developed from surveys conducted on behalf of the Australian Federal Government and specifically aimed at providing a better understanding of the growth and performance of Australian SMEs. As a result, the sample used was highly representative of Australian SMEs and was based on very good response rates.The study finds that female controlled businesses have significantly lower total income (sales plus other income) and profits, than male controlled businesses. Further, this result persists after controlling for industry; age of business; experience of owner; days per week the business operated; education of owner; and whether the owner had a degree in business. This finding suggests that it might be appropriate to reconsider how SME performance is measured - are sales and profit the most appropriate measures of performance. It could also be argued that non-financial performance indicators (such as owner satisfaction) should be included in any assessment of SME performance.