Gender quotas and the environment: Environmental performance and enforcement

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between the implementation of mandatory gender quotas on boards and companies' environmental indicators for Italian listed firms from 2010 to 2018. First, based on the upper echelon and resource dependence theories, we expect that the resources provided by female directors appointed under a coercive legal approach will lead to a reduction in firms' greenhouse gas emissions and an increase in recycled waste. These resources are mainly based on female personality, backgrounds and environmental commitment, which improve firms' environmental decision-making. Second, based on the gender socialisation and overconfidence theories, we expect that women's attention to stakeholders and experts will be negatively related to firms' environmental violations, which result in litigation and penalties. To test our hypotheses we used a content analysis and a staggered difference-in-difference multivariate regression model. Our results confirm our expectations for environmental performance and litigation, but not for penalties.