Gender Diversity in Boardrooms and on Supervisory Boards and its Relation to Stock Prices

Abstract

Despite the fact that the labour force participation rate of women declined in the company bodies of publicly traded companies in 2017, there has been a growing representation of women in these positions in Europe. The representation of women is important due to the use of available human resources, the improvement in the quality of human capital and the positive effect on economic development. Gender imbalance in the management and supervisory bodies of publicly traded companies can be associated with lower management effectiveness, a decision-making quality that can influence the business situation of companies, which could be related to stock price development. Thus, this paper is focuses on examining the relationship between gender diversity in boardrooms and on supervisory boards and the stock prices of selected European publicly traded companies. The results show that there are dissimilar relations between stock prices and gender variables among the sectors and countries analysed.