Women on Boards Scale: Cordons and Catalysts to Enter Boardroom

Abstract

The underrepresentation of women on corporate boards and its influencers is an under-researched area in Asia, with the absence of standard scales measuring the catalysts and cordons for women’s career progression to boards. The research paper aims to develop and validate a multidimensional scale to measure the influences impacting women’s representation on boards in the Indian context. A pool of items was generated after a thorough review of existing literature and discussion with the experts. The Women on Boards Scale (WOBS) was constructed and validated based on a quantitative study of 509 female and male employees working in companies in Delhi and NCR. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis techniques were applied for the study. The study confirms the structure of major barriers as individual, societal, and organisational barriers, along with the entry barriers that women face during entry or re-entry into the organization and enablers as well for women to reach boards. A comprehensive scale was constructed with significant psychometric properties to measure the barriers and enablers for women to reach boards. The scale provides a robust and useful tool for policymakers and corporations to improve gender diversity on corporate boards.