Falling Over the Glass Cliff? The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women Directors’ Board Turnover

Abstract

Mounting evidence suggests that women have left the labor market at unprecedented rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. We seek to contribute to the ongoing debates on the gendered effects of the COVID-19 pandemic by exploring the labor market effects of gender in corporate leadership positions. While the challenges women face to rise above the glass ceiling are well-documented, factors determining their departure are less well understood. The global pandemic offers an opportunity to evaluate the effects of gendered expectations and diversity considerations during a crisis on the likelihood of women director turnover. Using a sample of 15,768 unique outside directors sitting at the boards of 4,249 public firms in 32 European countries between 2019 and 2020, we find that director turnover in general has significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and women directors are as likely as men directors to leave their board positions during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings also hold across different country-level contextual factors. Our findings suggest that beyond the glass ceiling women's behavior is more similar to their men counterparts than women in general. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research on corporate leadership positions and gender differences in the boardroom.