When Tokens Matter: A Critical Perspective on Tokenism and Women on Corporate Boards

Abstract

This essay critiques the existing understanding of the concepts of tokens and tokenism within the particular context of women on corporate boards. We argue that existing tokenism scholarship adopts a reductive logic that equates tokens with tokenism and assumes numerical underrepresentation of women as an implied signal of lack of power, thereby failing to fully reflect the latent power of tokens as potential agents of both personal and inter-group change. Integrating perspectives from socio-psychological theories namely, social categorization, social identity and social integration, we argue that, after appointment, the effectiveness of a woman token’s station on a corporate board ought to be qualitatively evaluated in terms of her social categorization and the extent of her social identification with the non-dominant gender group, and her ex post facto social integration into dominant peer group. We propose a layered token theory defining four categories of tokens, (1) the marginalized token; (2) the passive token; (3) the queen bee token; and (4) the changemaker token. These theorized categories capture how women board members differentially navigate group dynamics within the collective, once a board position is taken up consequently affecting tokenism on corporate boards. Our essay has relevance for gender discourse and management research.