Continuity and Change on Corporate Boards

Abstract

The number of women on public company boards has increased dramatically in recent years. We study where these women directors came from and how they were absorbed. Since 2018, women with board experience obtain significantly more board seats than their male counterparts. Women directors are also more likely to have no previous board experience than men, indicating movement on both the intensive and extensive margin. Adding a woman director is associated with a transitory increase in board size roughly one third of the time. This increase is offset when an existing director rolls off. The bulk of this reversion happens within one year, and boards return to pre-addition size within three years.

Keywords: board diversity, women in management, gender diversity, board of directors

JEL Classification: G30