Women on Corporate Boards: A Literature Review

Abstract

The paper aims to comprehend the research work carried out about women directors to identify and highlight various issues, such as; status of women directors, factors hindering the growth of women directors, benefits of having women directors, strategies to promote women participation and directions for future research. The paper clears that the representation of women on the corporate boards across the globe is very low. Role perception, male dominance and stereotypes, proportion of women in management positions, mentoring and networking opportunities, nature of industries, size of the organization and board and a range of other factors determine the participation of women on the corporate boards. Awareness for social philanthropy, less incidences of sexual harassment, motivating women employees and improved corporate performance are the different benefits an organization can drive from having more women at the corporate boards.