Abstract
We document that heightened public attention to gender equality is associated with an increase in board gender diversity. Improvements in diversity are more pronounced in firms with a corporate culture that is already sympathetic to gender equality. When public attention to gender equality increases, firms reach out to a larger pool of women, such as women without industry experience or outside their network, but female director appointments do not appear to be dilutive of the board's skills. Instead, we observe less reliance on connections for director appointments and a decrease in the propensity to appoint connected men.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 485-511 |
| Number of pages | 27 |
| Journal | Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 19 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank an anonymous referee, Mara Faccio (the editor), Jonathan Karpoff, Karl Lins, Michelle Lowry, Ulrike Malmendier, Geoffrey Tate, Daniel Urban, Yuhai Xuan, and seminar participants at the American Finance Association, the European Finance Association, the Drexel LeBow Spring Seminar Series on Corporate Governance, Indiana University, Nova School of Business and Economics, the University of Minnesota, the University of Mannheim, the University of Kentucky, the University of Alabama, the University of Surrey, the University of Utah, and the University of Birmingham for comments. Giannetti gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Swedish House of Finance, the Nasdaq Nordic Foundation, the JanWallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation, and the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s).
