Does the Share of Female Managers Affect the Firm's Geographic Spread? Evidence from the UK

Abstract

The present article aims to add a new thread on the debate of gender quota by assessing gender diversity in senior managerial positions. We utilise UK data drawn from the 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Study (WERS6), the latest survey in the WERS series, to examine the former association. The use of appropriate weights makes our results representative of the UK population. After controlling for firm characteristics, we find statistically negative relationship between the share of female managers employed at the firm-level and the geographic spread of the firm. More specifically, our results uncover a particularly strong association between selling the final product largely on the local market and having a high share of female managers. Possible explanations for the former association can be found in the literature that discusses gender differences due to risk, competition and social preferences