Female board representation, risk-taking and performance: Evidence from dual banking systems

Abstract

This paper investigates whether the presence of female directors is significantly smaller for Islamic banks than their conventional counterparts and more importantly how different is the performance of Islamic banks with females in the board vis-a-vis conventional banks. We find that Islamic banks have just slightly lower female directors in their boards and their performance is not affected by the appointment of females on the board differently than conventional banks. Our findings highlight that promotion of gender equality and adopting inclusion culture even in religiously conscious corporations such as Islamic banks do not adversely affect the performance.