Women's participation on boards of directors: a review of the literature

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the literature on the participation of women on Boards of Directors (BD). Design/methodology/approach - The authors review a body of literature (theoretical and empirical words) that analyzes the women's role on the BD of companies. The review allows the authors to bring together the theoretical foundations and the empirical findings of studies that have examined the influence of the engagement of women on BD on the business outcomes of the firms involved. Findings - There is no agreement on the results relating to the effect of the presence of women on these boards. Moreover, there is no well-defined theoretical basis to explain this relationship, making it necessary to use a multi-theoretical approach. Research limitations/implications - This study could be extended by including investigations of the intermediate variable between the composition of the BD and the business outcomes, thus enabling an analysis of the effects of different organizational variables on the economic and financial variables already studied. In addition, the authors propose a comparative study between different countries and between different kinds of companies. Originality/value - This paper highlights the controversy that exists over the significance of the involvement of women on the BD of companies. It also proposes the development of new lines of research to attempt to answer some of the questions that are raised by the diverse findings reported in the literature.