Shaking things up or business as usual? The influence of female corporate executives and board of directors on women’s managerial representation

Agents of Change or Cogs in the Machine? Reexamining the Influence of Female Managers on the Gender Wage Gap

“…For example, Dezso and Ross (2012) reported that an increased representation of women in management was positively associated with firm performance when a firm's strategy was focused on innovation and attributed this result in part to the interactive leadership style of female leaders. Similarly, Skaggs, Stainback, and Duncan (2012) found that having more women in corporate boards was associated with greater female managerial representation at the establishment level and suggested that enhanced mentoring and access to social networks provided by female board members to female managers accounted for this effect. Among the mechanisms that Cohen and workplace opportunity… more rigorous enforcement could represent a mechanism for jumpstarting the gender stall we document.…”

Does the Presence of Women in Management Impact Gender Inequality?

“…I have focused on a somewhat small set of relatively recent studies that capture some of the different types of data and approaches that have been used. Other important studies that support the female managers as agents of change include Baron et al's ( 1991 ) longitudinal study of California state agencies, Bell's ( 2005 ) study of women-led fi rms, Carrington and Troske's ( 1995 ) study of the link between the gender of business owners and the gender composition of businesses' workforce, Cardoso and WinterEbmer's ( 2010 ) examination of gender inequality in Portugal, Cohen et al's ( 1998 ) analysis of savings and loans, Cotter, et al's ( 1997 ) multilevel analysis of occupational gender segregation and the wage gap, Gorman's ( 2005 ) analysis of U.S. law fi rms, Skaggs et al's ( 2012 ) multilevel analysis of workplaces nested in fi rms, and Stainback and Kwon's ( 2012 ) analysis of both public and private sector workplaces from the 2005 Korean Workplace Panel Survey.…”

Diversity begets diversity? The effects of board composition on the appointment and success of women CEOs

“…For instance, scholarship on organizational mobility has long emphasized the importance of strong female or minority mentors in promoting the careers of junior colleagues from underrepresented groups (e.g., Bell and Nkomo, 2001;McGuire, 1999;Vallian, 1999). Research in organizational demography further suggests that diversity among top leadership ranks is associated with greater diversity at lower levels of an organization (Skaggs et al, 2012), a phenomenon termed 'bottom-up' ascription (Elliott and Smith, 2001). This research implies that leaders who represent a demographic minority will increase the representation of other demographic minorities by advocating for more diverse hires, serving as role models and mentors to those hires and/or moderating the influence of bias in recruitment, hiring and promotion (Duguid et al, 2012;Ibarra, 1995).…”

“…The ability of numerical minority leaders to enact positive organizational change depends on two compositional factors: (1) the presence of multiple numerical minority members occupying positions of authority; and (2) the relative influence of numerical minority leaders (Cohen and Huffman, 2007;Cotter et al, 1997;Nelson and Bridges, 1999;Skaggs et al, 2012).…”

“…Some studies conclude that demographic diversity among leadership ranks reduces segregation and increases pay equity and mobility opportunities for women and minorities (Bilimoria, 2006;Carter et al, 2003Carter et al, , 2010Cohen and Huffman, 2007;Skaggs et al, 2012;Stainback and Kwon, 2012;Terjesen and Singh, 2008). Scholarship specific to board diversity also finds that diverse boards are more transparent and accountable, communicate more effectively, implement innovation more successfully and enjoy better reputations compared to firms without diverse boards (Bear et al, 2010;Brown et al, 2002;Fondas and Sassalos, 2000;Miller and Triana, 2009;Torchia et al, 2011).…”