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Legislating a Woman's Seat on the Board: Institutional Factors Driving Gender Quotas for Boards of Directors

Terjesen, Siri LU ; Aguilera, Ruth V. and Lorenz, Ruth (2015) In Journal of Business Ethics 128(2). p.233-251
Abstract
Ten countries have established quotas for female representation on publicly traded corporate and/or state-owned enterprise boards of directors, ranging from 33 to 50 %, with various sanctions. Fifteen other countries have introduced non-binding gender quotas in their corporate governance codes enforcing a "comply or explain" principle. Countless other countries' leaders and policy groups are in the process of debating, developing, and approving legislation around gender quotas in boards. Taken together, gender quota legislation significantly impacts the composition of boards of directors and thus the strategic direction of these publicly traded and state-owned enterprises. This article outlines an integrated model of three institutional... (More)
Ten countries have established quotas for female representation on publicly traded corporate and/or state-owned enterprise boards of directors, ranging from 33 to 50 %, with various sanctions. Fifteen other countries have introduced non-binding gender quotas in their corporate governance codes enforcing a "comply or explain" principle. Countless other countries' leaders and policy groups are in the process of debating, developing, and approving legislation around gender quotas in boards. Taken together, gender quota legislation significantly impacts the composition of boards of directors and thus the strategic direction of these publicly traded and state-owned enterprises. This article outlines an integrated model of three institutional factors that explain the establishment of board of directors gender quota legislation based on the premise that the country's institutional environment co-evolves with gender corporate policies. We argue that these three key institutional factors are female labor market and gendered welfare state provisions, left-leaning political government coalitions, and path-dependent policy initiatives for gender equality, both in the public realm as well as in the corporate domain. We discuss implications of our conceptual model and empirical findings for theory, practice, policy, and future research. These include the adoption and penalty design of board diversity practices into corporate practices, bottom-up approaches from firm to country-level gender board initiatives, hard versus soft regulation, the leading role of Norway and its isomorphic effects, the likelihood of engaging in decoupling, the role of business leaders, and the transnational and international reaction to board diversity initiatives. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Corporate governance, Gender equality, Board gender codes, Board gender, quotas, Welfare state, Left-leaning political coalitions, Path, dependency, Publicly traded firms, State-owned enterprises
in
Journal of Business Ethics
volume
128
issue
2
pages
233 - 251
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • wos:000352712400001
  • scopus:84894277629
ISSN
1573-0697
DOI
10.1007/s10551-014-2083-1
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
2e8f2e76-9752-4dad-a828-bfeac5dc8856 (old id 5401338)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:50:37
date last changed
2022-04-28 01:40:00
@article{2e8f2e76-9752-4dad-a828-bfeac5dc8856,
  abstract     = {{Ten countries have established quotas for female representation on publicly traded corporate and/or state-owned enterprise boards of directors, ranging from 33 to 50 %, with various sanctions. Fifteen other countries have introduced non-binding gender quotas in their corporate governance codes enforcing a "comply or explain" principle. Countless other countries' leaders and policy groups are in the process of debating, developing, and approving legislation around gender quotas in boards. Taken together, gender quota legislation significantly impacts the composition of boards of directors and thus the strategic direction of these publicly traded and state-owned enterprises. This article outlines an integrated model of three institutional factors that explain the establishment of board of directors gender quota legislation based on the premise that the country's institutional environment co-evolves with gender corporate policies. We argue that these three key institutional factors are female labor market and gendered welfare state provisions, left-leaning political government coalitions, and path-dependent policy initiatives for gender equality, both in the public realm as well as in the corporate domain. We discuss implications of our conceptual model and empirical findings for theory, practice, policy, and future research. These include the adoption and penalty design of board diversity practices into corporate practices, bottom-up approaches from firm to country-level gender board initiatives, hard versus soft regulation, the leading role of Norway and its isomorphic effects, the likelihood of engaging in decoupling, the role of business leaders, and the transnational and international reaction to board diversity initiatives.}},
  author       = {{Terjesen, Siri and Aguilera, Ruth V. and Lorenz, Ruth}},
  issn         = {{1573-0697}},
  keywords     = {{Corporate governance; Gender equality; Board gender codes; Board gender; quotas; Welfare state; Left-leaning political coalitions; Path; dependency; Publicly traded firms; State-owned enterprises}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{233--251}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Journal of Business Ethics}},
  title        = {{Legislating a Woman's Seat on the Board: Institutional Factors Driving Gender Quotas for Boards of Directors}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2083-1}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s10551-014-2083-1}},
  volume       = {{128}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}