Rising board gender diversity and incentives of female directors

Abstract

As board gender diversity rises, it is important to understand the motivations of female independent directors. Focusing on the primary profession of female directors, we distinguish between promotion incentives of those who are senior executives of other firms (CorpFemales) and service/fee incentives of non-executive directors (OtherFemales). We find that OtherFemales hold more directorships and are more likely to miss board meetings. CorpFemales are more likely to serve on audit committees, which likely improves the reporting quality. CorpFemales, as opposed to OtherFemales exhibit higher M&A announcement returns and pay lower takeover premiums, especially when the choice of payment for acquisitions is equity.