Do female directors affect the quality of CSR reporting ? - [Les administratrices ont-elles une influence sur la qualité du reporting RSE ?]

The quality of information contained in sustainability reports is essential for stakeholders to make good decisions. Since women are more attentive to the needs of others, we hypothesize that the proportion of women on corporate boards is associated with better disclosure practices, and more specifi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIDEAS Working Paper Series from RePEc
Main Authors Geyer, Dominique, Nguyen, Pascal, Sadek Ouhadouch
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 01.01.2022
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Summary:The quality of information contained in sustainability reports is essential for stakeholders to make good decisions. Since women are more attentive to the needs of others, we hypothesize that the proportion of women on corporate boards is associated with better disclosure practices, and more specifically, a higher likelihood of adopting the GRI standards. Our results using a sample of 143 French firms over the period 2006-2020 are consistent with this hypothesis. We also provide evidence of a critical mass of two women, or about one woman for 5 directors, for them to have a significant impact. However, the influence of women appears to be inhibited by the level of debt, suggesting that the firm's financial strength is crucial to allow women to have the expected influence.