Women on the Board of Directors : linked to a more transparent policy?

Abstract

The gender quota has supporters and opponents, but it is undoubtedly an effective way to increase the number of women on boards of directors (BOD). Much research has already been carried out into the functioning of women on the BOD and the consequences for the working of this body and for the performance of the company. An aspect that has hardly been investigated is the relation between the presence of these women and the disclosure of information. However, the BOD plays an important role in the reporting behavior of a company, since it is responsible for what information is disclosed to the outside world. In this study, we investigate whether more women on the BOD provide more transparency and a more truthful image of a company by voluntarily providing more information. In doing so, we focus on the voluntary release of both strategic, financial and non-financial information. Based on the 2011 and 2015 annual reports of 60 Belgian listed companies, we found no support that the presence of women on the BOD has a positive effect on the degree of voluntary reporting of information, not even when these women are independent or sit on the audit committee. Additional analyses show that a negative and statistically significant effect on the voluntary reporting of financial information can be observed. We also find some evidence of tokenism, since the negative effect on relation with the financial reporting manifests itself from two women. Altogether, it therefore seems that a more transparent communication is based on the personality of the members of the board rather than on their gender.