Women at the Top in Developing Countries: Evidence from Firm-Level Data

Arbeitspapier

This paper uses worldwide firm-level data to scrutinize the governance factors that favor gender diversity in leadership positions. Our results reveal that the gender of the dominant shareholder is key. The chief executive of firms with a female dominant shareholder has a significantly higher probability of being a woman than in other firms. The effect is even more pronounced when the female shareholder holds a higher share of the capital and when the firm is foreign-owned. Our results suggest that "old boys' club" ownership structures are a major impediment to the empowerment of female talent in developing countries.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 9537

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration ; Labor Discrimination ; Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill ; Personnel Economics: Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions ; Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
• Subject: gender ; diversity ; ownership ; leadership ; CEO ; development

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Sekkat, Khalid ; Szafarz, Ariane ; Tojerow, Ilan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2015

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/125054
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET