Effects of female directors on gender diversity at lower organization levels and CSR performance: Evidence in Japan

This paper examines the effects of board gender diversity on female representation at lower or-ganization levels and corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Using a panel data set of more than 1000 Japanese listed firms from 2005 to 2014, we focus on firms that introduced female directors to their male-dominant boards for the first time and find that the first-introduced female directors are positively associated with a greater number of female officers and managers. The introduction of the first female director is also associated with better CSR performance. Our results are statistically significant and suggest that board gender diversity has an effect on pro-moting gender diversity at lower levels and CSR performance in listed firms.