1. The document examines whether having women on boards (non-executive roles) leads to more women in management (executive roles), known as "gender diversity spillovers". 2. It finds that gender diversity spillovers only occur in publicly listed firms, where there is public scrutiny, and not in privately held firms without public oversight. 3. Additionally, gender diversity spillovers do not occur when there is only one woman on the board, since having a single "token" woman does not mitigate the effects of gender stereotypes.

1. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Shadows of public eye
working paper with Joanna Tyrowicz and Siri Terjesen
Hubert Drażkowski
FAME|GRAPE, Warsaw University of Technology
Poznań University of Economics
September 2022
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

2. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Do women help women? Mechanisms of diversity spillovers
Gender diversity: non-executive roles ⇒ executive roles
Matsa and Miller (2011) Matsa and Miller (2013)
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

3. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Do women help women? Mechanisms of diversity spillovers
Gender diversity: non-executive roles ⇒ executive roles
Matsa and Miller (2011) Matsa and Miller (2013)
Public firms = public scrutiny
(⇒ reputation cost of denying diversity)
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

4. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Do women help women? Mechanisms of diversity spillovers
Gender diversity: non-executive roles ⇒ executive roles
Matsa and Miller (2011) Matsa and Miller (2013)
Public firms = public scrutiny
(⇒ reputation cost of denying diversity)
In public firms: helpless if token
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

5. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Do women help women? Mechanisms of diversity spillovers
Gender diversity: non-executive roles ⇒ executive roles
Matsa and Miller (2011) Matsa and Miller (2013)
Public firms = public scrutiny
(⇒ reputation cost of denying diversity)
In public firms: helpless if token
In non-public firms: no public eye at all
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

6. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Do women help women? Mechanisms of diversity spillovers
Gender diversity: non-executive roles ⇒ executive roles
Matsa and Miller (2011) Matsa and Miller (2013)
Public firms = public scrutiny
(⇒ reputation cost of denying diversity)
In public firms: helpless if token
In non-public firms: no public eye at all
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

7. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Do women help women? Mechanisms of diversity spillovers
Gender diversity: non-executive roles ⇒ executive roles
Matsa and Miller (2011) Matsa and Miller (2013)
Public firms = public scrutiny
(⇒ reputation cost of denying diversity)
In public firms: helpless if token
In non-public firms: no public eye at all
What we do?
1 Go beyond stock-listed firms (novel data)
2 Explore data from 1985 onwards (novel gender identification)
3 Do women help women in corporate Europe? (novel specification)
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

8. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
What we know
Managers more likely hire same gender people ... in Germany
Bossler et al. (2020)
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

9. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
What we know
Managers more likely hire same gender people ... in Germany
Bossler et al. (2020)
Women in supervisory roles ⇒ women in executive roles in under public scrutiny firms
eg. Matsa and Miller (2013) Matsa and Miller (2011)
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

10. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
What we know
Managers more likely hire same gender people ... in Germany
Bossler et al. (2020)
Women in supervisory roles ⇒ women in executive roles in under public scrutiny firms
eg. Matsa and Miller (2013) Matsa and Miller (2011)
We know that women on boards are token ... in Denmark
Smith and Parrotta (2018)
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

11. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Our contribution
Data: Orbis (3 079 262 firms)
Registry data: 1985s - 2020 of 30 European countries
Board members: public and non public Data details
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

12. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Our contribution
Data: Orbis (3 079 262 firms)
Registry data: 1985s - 2020 of 30 European countries
Board members: public and non public Data details
Identification
Gender based on linguistic rules
Board positions extracted from word parsing Identification
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

13. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Our contribution
Data: Orbis (3 079 262 firms)
Registry data: 1985s - 2020 of 30 European countries
Board members: public and non public Data details
Identification
Gender based on linguistic rules
Board positions extracted from word parsing Identification
Specification: separating mechanisms
Tokenism, public scrutiny, board compositions in a panel regression Formula
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

14. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
No spillovers
Linear probability 1(femaleMB
t )
model
1(femaleOB
t−1) -.000638***
NOT listedt
listedt #1(femaleOB
t−1)
Observations 16 598 209
Firms 3 079 262
Clustered SE Yes
Fixed effects Firm
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

15. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
No spillovers when no public eye
Linear probability 1(femaleMB
t )
model
1(femaleOB
t−1) -.00638*** .1305***
NOT listedt .039***
NOT listedt #1(femaleOB
t−1) -.1387***
Observations 16 598 209
Firms 3 079 262
Clustered SE Yes
Fixed effects Firm
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

16. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
No spillovers
Linear probability 1(femaleMB
t ) 1(femaleMB
t == 1)
model 1(femaleMB
t−1 == 0)
1(femaleOB
t−1) -.00638*** .1305*** -.0036***
NOT listedt .039***
NOT listedt #1(femaleOB
t−1) -.1387***
Observations 16 598 209 13 236 551
Firms 3 079 262 2 721 726
Clustered SE Yes Yes
Fixed effects Firm Firm
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

17. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
No spillovers when no public eye
Linear probability 1(femaleMB
t ) 1(femaleMB
t == 1)
model 1(femaleMB
t−1 == 0)
1(femaleOB
t−1) -.00638*** .1305*** -.0036*** .09821***
NOT listedt .039*** .0109
NOT listedt #1(femaleOB
t−1) -.1387*** -.1034***
Observations 16 598 209 13 236 551
Firms 3 079 262 2 721 726
Clustered SE Yes Yes
Fixed effects Firm Firm
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

18. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
No spillovers when token
Linear probability 1(femaleMB
t ) 1(femaleMB
t == 1) 1(femaleMB
t )
model 1(femaleMB
t−1 == 0)
1(femaleOB
t−1 <= 1) -.0063*** .1305*** -.0036*** .0982*** -.0031***
NOT listedt .039*** .0109
NOT listedt #1(femaleOB
t−1) -.1387*** -.1034***
Observations 16 598 209 13 236 551 16 598 209
Firms 3 079 262 2 721 726 3 079 262
Clustered SE Yes Yes Yes
Fixed effects Firm Firm Firm
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

19. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
One women ⇒ token
Linear probability 1(femaleMB
t ) 1(femaleMB
t == 1) 1(femaleMB
t )
model 1(femaleMB
t−1 == 0)
1(femaleOB
t−1 ≤ 1) -.0063*** .1305*** -.0036*** .0982*** -.0031*** -.0341***
NOT listedt .039*** .0109 -.0267***
NOT listedt #1(femaleOB
t−1 ≤ 1) -.1387*** -.1034*** .031***
Observations 16 598 209 13 236 551 16 598 209
Firms 3 079 262 2 721 726 3 079 262
Clustered SE Yes Yes Yes
Fixed effects Firm Firm Firm
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

20. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Conclusions
Women help women?
1 No public scrutiny ⇒ no help
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

21. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Conclusions
Women help women?
1 No public scrutiny ⇒ no help
2 One women ⇒ token
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

22. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Conclusions
Women help women?
1 No public scrutiny ⇒ no help
2 One women ⇒ token
3 Spillovers under the public eye ⇒ not if token
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

23. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Conclusions
Women help women?
1 No public scrutiny ⇒ no help
2 One women ⇒ token
3 Spillovers under the public eye ⇒ not if token
4 Similar mechanism for a first women
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

24. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Conclusions
Women help women?
1 No public scrutiny ⇒ no help
2 One women ⇒ token
3 Spillovers under the public eye ⇒ not if token
4 Similar mechanism for a first women
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

25. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Conclusions
Women help women?
1 No public scrutiny ⇒ no help
2 One women ⇒ token
3 Spillovers under the public eye ⇒ not if token
4 Similar mechanism for a first women
Extensions
Time trends
Country weights
Top managers pipeline
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

26. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Questions or suggestions?
Thank you!
w: grape.org.pl
t: grape org
f: grape.org
e: hubertmarek.drazek[at]gmail.com
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

27. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Bibliography
Bossler, M., A. Mosthaf, and T. Schank (2020). Are female managers more likely to hire more
female managers? evidence from germany. ILR Review 73(3), 676–704.
Matsa, D. A. and A. R. Miller (2011). Chipping away at the glass ceiling: Gender spillovers in
corporate leadership. American Economic Review 101(3), 635–39.
Matsa, D. A. and A. R. Miller (2013). A female style in corporate leadership? evidence from
quotas. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 5(3), 136–69.
Smith, N. and P. Parrotta (2018). Why so few women on boards of directors? empirical
evidence from danish companies in 1998–2010. Journal of Business Ethics 147(2), 445–467.
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

28. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Data details
Figure: Firms from the sample in years
Back
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

29. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Identification details
People → People gender
Back
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

30. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Identification details
People → People gender
People gender → BD
Back
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

31. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Identification details
People → People gender
People gender → BD
MB ∪ SB ⊂ BD
Back
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

32. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Identification details
People → People gender
People gender → BD
MB ∪ SB ⊂ BD
OB = BD − MB
Back
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

33. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Identification details
People → People gender
People gender → BD
MB ∪ SB ⊂ BD
OB = BD − MB
⇒ lower bound on absolute value of coefficients
Back
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

34. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Specification details
Outcome
1(femaleMB
t )
1(femaleMB
t == 1, femaleMB
t−1 == 0)
1 1(femaleOB
t−1)
Back
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

35. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Specification details
Outcome
1(femaleMB
t )
1(femaleMB
t == 1, femaleMB
t−1 == 0)
1 1(femaleOB
t−1)
2 1(femaleOB
t−1) + NOTlistedt + NOTlistedt#1(femaleOB
t−1)
Back
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

36. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Specification details
Outcome
1(femaleMB
t )
1(femaleMB
t == 1, femaleMB
t−1 == 0)
1 1(femaleOB
t−1)
2 1(femaleOB
t−1) + NOTlistedt + NOTlistedt#1(femaleOB
t−1)
3 1(femaleOB
t−1 ≤ 1)
Back
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.

37. Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.
Specification details
Outcome
1(femaleMB
t )
1(femaleMB
t == 1, femaleMB
t−1 == 0)
1 1(femaleOB
t−1)
2 1(femaleOB
t−1) + NOTlistedt + NOTlistedt#1(femaleOB
t−1)
3 1(femaleOB
t−1 ≤ 1)
4 1(femaleOB
t−1 ≤ 1) + NOTlistedt + NOTlistedt#1(femaleOB
t−1 ≤ 1)
Back
Gender diversity spillovers and token women on boards.