Women Directors and E&S Performance: Evidence from Board Gender Quotas

Women Directors and E&S Performance: Evidence from Board Gender Quotas

Edith Ginglinger, Caroline Raskopf

Series number :

Serial Number: 
760/2021

Date posted :

May 14 2021

Last revised :

October 18 2023
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Keywords

  • board of directors • 
  • Gender Quotas • 
  • Gender Diversity • 
  • critical mass theory • 
  • board committees • 
  • environmental and social committee • 
  • environmental and social performance • 
  • corporate social responsibility (CSR) • 
  • director skills

Using the natural experiment created by France's 2011 board gender quota law, we find that the presence of women on boards increases firms’ environmental and social (E&S) performance. After the quota law, firms are more likely to create an E&S committee, and women directors are increasingly serving as members of the main board committees and as chairs of E&S committees.

We find that prior to being recruited to boards, women directors have more environmental and social experience than men. Combined with their increased authority after the introduction of quotas, their E&S skills allow them to steer companies toward more E&S-oriented policies.

 

 

Published in

Published in: 
Description: 
Journal of Corporate Finance, Forthcoming

Authors

Real name:
Caroline Raskopf