Women on Boards of Directors: A Meta-Analytic Examination of the Roles of Organizational Leadership and National Context for Gender Equality

Growing evidence suggests that gender diversity on boards of directors is important for corporate governance and overall organizational effectiveness. Yet, progress in increasing female board representation has been slow. Prior studies have focused primarily on either the role of organizational characteristics in board gender composition or the role of national institutions as predictors of female board representation across countries. In this study, we integrate psychological theory related to implicit biases and agency theory, with institutional theory, to propose that the national context for gender equality moderates the extent to which characteristics of organizational leadership relate to female board representation. We conduct a meta-analysis of 158 samples encompassing 60,648 organizations across 36 countries to test our hypotheses. Our findings highlight the importance of the national context for gender equality as a boundary condition for understanding the relationship between organizational leadership characteristics and female board representation. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for increasing the representation of female directors across countries.