Women Directors and E&S Performance: Evidence from Board Gender Quotas
European Corporate Governance Institute – Finance Working Paper No. 760/2021
61 Pages Posted: 23 Apr 2021 Last revised: 19 Oct 2023
Date Written: January 10, 2020
Abstract
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.
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.
JEL Classification: G34, G38, J16, K38, M14
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation