WOMEN DIRECTORS ON CORPORATE BOARDS: EVIDENCE FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE

Abstract

Despite of decades of ongoing debate, there has been a little impact on corporate practices, as the representation of women serving on the corporate boards of the large, prime or most visible corporation has remained negligible across the world.To expound the longing to have gender diverse board for implementation of better corporate governance and long term survival of corporations in India.The results revealed that in context of India, women participation on corporate boards is at the stage of tokenism. Findings revealed that the provision under the Companies Act, 2013 wherein certain class of companies to have at least one woman director has eventually necessitated in India to bring any real change in the homogeneous boards and there are substantial number of hindrances for women in the form of organisational, individual and societal barriers while climbing the corporate ladder still women exhibit diverse leadership style and women's presence leads to qualitative advancement. The analysis of data highlights that women are vigilant about all stakeholders' interest and women are risk averse. It provides an explanation for previous inconclusive findings of studies regarding the impact of women on corporate governance by advocating the need to enhance board effectiveness as a transitional stride in understanding the effects of board on governance level outcomes.