Not a Single Lady: Board Diversity and Workforce Composition, Compensation, and Retention for U.S. Publicly Traded Firms

• In Event: Gender, Taxation, and Labor Markets

Abstract

We use administrative data from the U.S. Census to estimate the effect of female
director representation on workplace gender diversity and women’s earnings. Using
a difference-in-differences estimator that correctly accounts for variation in treatment
timing, we show that first-time female director appointments lead to subsequent in-
creases in workplace gender diversity. We find that the effects are driven by the im-
proved retention of female workers in the middle and upper quartiles of the firm’s overall
earnings distribution. We find suggestive evidence that the effects are due to the newly
appointed female directors’ influence on corporate policy, as we observe stronger effects
when the director is placed on one of the board’s three core committees.

Author

• Elena Patel, The Brookings Institution