Gender diversity in boards of directors: A bibliometric mapping

Abstract

The literature on gender diversity in boards of directors has expanded significantly in recent years, due to the fact that women are increasingly holding higher management positions within the company hierarchy, clearly demonstrating that certain characteristics of women have a positive impact on different areas within the company. The objective of this paper is to analyze scientific articles on the presence of women in boards of directors, based on a literature review, in order to learn about the evolution of this concept over time. The search conducted for this paper produced 300 documents from the Web of Science, with a final total result of 168 documents after passing the initial results through various filters. VOSviewer software was used to analyze the information, which enabled the creation of bibliometric citation, co-citation and co-word maps. The results reveal the most relevant authors and studies on this subject and identify the most current studies, the main topic of which deals with sustainability and corporate social responsibility, in addition to highlighting the characteristics of women that are of vital importance to boards of directors within the current context: empathy, open innovation, concern for the needs of interest groups and a heightened perception of risks.