Corporations

This special report from DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2008/2009 is a bi-annual study that measures the impact of leadership development initiatives around the world. The study included data from more than 12,000 leaders from 76 countries. Research revealed the following: female leaders are under-represented in accelerated development programs (like high potential programs and one-on-one mentorship) are secret or happen behind closed doors, organizations aren’t held accountable for gender balance; and, having women represent in significant numbers at every leadership level doesn’t mean that will carry to the executive level– in fact, there is a backlash again women at the top when they are dominant in leadership roles at every other level.
 

We show that female directors have a significant impact on board inputs and firm outcomes. In a sample of US firms, we find that female directors have better attendance records than male directors, male directors have fewer attendance problems the more gender-diverse the board is, and women are more likely to join monitoring committees. These results suggest that gender-diverse boards allocate more effort to monitoring. Accordingly, we find that CEO turnover is more sensitive to stock performance and directors receive more equity-based compensation in firms with more gender-diverse boards. However, the average effect of gender diversity on firm performance is negative. This negative effect is driven by companies with fewer takeover defenses. Our results suggest that mandating gender quotas for directors can reduce firm value for well-governed firms.

Calvert’s recent Diversity Survey, Examining Cracks in the Ceiling, demonstrates that even the best companies have much to accomplish in developing a comprehensive diversity strategy.
 

Scholars and practitioners have long argued that females exhibit a distinctive and particularly effective managerial style. Yet, less than a third of the largest U.S. corporations have a single female senior executive, raising the question of whether women are in fact effective as senior managers, and, if so, under what circumstances.

In the past few decades, women have made great strides in their involvement in economic activity, moving ever closer to what one might call “gender equality.” Women’s college participation and graduation rates exceed those of men, and more and more women are pursuing “traditionally male” college majors, particularly in professional fields such as law and medicine. However, discrepancies persist in the field of business administration, and this state of affairs is mirrored in the workforce: the proportion of women in managerial occupations is only about 35%.
 

Data suggesting that firms that promote women to senior management positions have superior economic performance because of the different skills women bring to the table.
 

For sixteen years, BDN has been gathering data for this annual study to measure the representation of women in the boardrooms of public companies with headquarters based in Georgia.
 

A study on women corporate board members that demonstrate the importance of numbers in how women leaders view themselves and how others view them.
 

This research shows that the number of women on a company’s board of directors impacts the future of women in its senior leadership. This is significant because earlier Catalyst findings show that Fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women board directors and women corporate officers, on average, achieve higher financial performance than those with the lowest. The numbers tell the story—a gender-diverse board promotes continued success for women and for business.

Launched in 2003, the Eurofirms Women in the PwC Network brings together women and men in leading positions from 20 European countries. It supports the strategic goal of creating a working environment to help them attract and retain the best talent-male and female. This Annual Report looks at the progress made by the network in the past five years. It tells the stories of European countries and provides a flavor of activities and achievements in the area of diversity.