Abstract
The 2008-2009 global financial crisis (GFC) has cast a pall over several corporate governance mechanisms in many firms worldwide. Nonetheless, how the firms treated their female directors in the aftermath and whether they maintained gender diversity on their boards remain mostly unknown and unexplored. A large body of research suggests that female directors not only improve the quality of corporate governance but also, under certain conditions, help boost a firm’s financial performance. These considerations aside, firms are under sustained pressure from stakeholders to increase female representation on their boards for the sake of representation and fairness, prompting the enactment of laws requiring gender quotas and corporate governance codes that “recommend” an increase in board gender diversity. In recent years, many firms have even appointed female chief executives. Yet, the question remains: How committed are these firms, including their female CEOs, to increasing board gender diversity? In a recent study, we used the GFC as a natural experiment to study the evolution of board gender diversity post-GFC.