GENDER SPILLOVERS OF WOMEN RISING THROUGH CORPORATE RANKS – A NETWORK ANALYSIS
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2022-08-25
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en
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In the context of the existence of a ‘glass ceiling’ and the reduced share of women on corporate boards, this paper is looking at the spillover effects from women on supervisory boards to women on management boards in the Netherlands, a country with a two-tier board system and a soft gender quota. The present study replicates the model by Bozhinov et.al. (2020) and adds a relational perspective by the use of network analysis elements, as previous literature stresses the importance of analysing corporate gender diversity beyond ‘body count’. Therefore, this study analyses the effects of degree centrality and eigenvector centrality as moderating factors on the impact an increased number of women on supervisory boards has on the probability of having women on the management board. By analysing data on 132 dutch companies over 9 years, the present study confirms the existence of positive gender spillovers. An increased number of women on supervisory boards have been found to increases the probability of having at least one woman on the management board. The novelty results brought by this study is that the size of the spillover effects significantly increases when women on the supervisory board are more central and influential within their networks; and slightly decreases when women on the supervisory board have more connections. As companies and governments struggle to increase participation of women at higher levels, these results should be considered for more successful policy making.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen