Title: Women in the board room: one can make a difference

Authors: Judith Lynne Zaichkowsky

Addresses: Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada

Abstract: This empirical study challenges the theory that a 'critical mass' of three or more women at the boardroom table is needed to make a difference. Performance ratings of Canadian publicly traded companies by the Globe and Mail show consistently higher corporate governance scores for companies with more women on their boards of directors. However, while companies that had three or more women on their boards had the highest scores, companies with only one woman on the board scored significantly higher than those with none. There was also no relationship between the number of women on boards of directors and Corporate Knights' social responsibility ratings on a national or global basis. The size of board and the type of industry are other important factors to consider when proposing quotas for female board members.

Keywords: board of directors; women; corporate governance; social responsibility; compensation; gender quotas; Canada; female board members; board size; industry type.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBGE.2014.062774

International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, 2014 Vol.9 No.1, pp.91 - 113

Received: 30 Apr 2013
Accepted: 30 Apr 2014
Published online: 31 Mar 2015 *

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