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Drawing from social capital theory, this study aims to investigate the manifested critical barriers in deriving and implementing gender diversity policies, paying particular attention to the role multiple directorships play in shaping the directors’ behavior and the dynamic of the board of directors. The study comprehends social capital as a multi-dimensional concept and uses combinations of interconnected internal, external, expressive and instrumental networks.

The study uses a mixed-method approach through which the quantitative approach is supplemented by a qualitative research method to comprehensively examine the development and impact of female directors’ networks in Australia. To do so, a large data set consisting of 2,527 observations of all Australian firms and data emerged from semi-structured interviews with female directors were brought together and analyzed.

The findings reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between the size of women’s directorate networks and firm performance. The study additionally explicates the key moderating factors influencing the optimal number of multiple directorships. The key power-based and psychological well-being-related benefits of the inter- and intra-organizational interactions and “open” directorate networks for individual directors are further discussed. The findings also elucidate the status quo vis-à-vis labyrinth metaphor and excessive numbers of directorships.

The study should be of interest to those interested in effective gender diversity management. The findings would assist in enabling tangible outcomes for women through advanced processes and systematic investment in and institutionalization of well-structured, equitable opportunities provided via gender-responsive policies dedicated to the education and training of future female directors.

Calling for social dialogues and discussions on non-financial factors, this study adds to the scarce literature on influential factors related to diversity management policies and practices on the board of directors.

Changes to government policy, deregulation and corporatization in New Zealand have influenced the number and status of women on boards of directors. Using company records, archival material and interviews, examines gender equity on boards of directors in New Zealand and compares the progress of women on the boards of corporate companies in the private sector with those on crown company boards in the public sector. While increasing numbers of New Zealand women are entering the business arena, they continue to be underrepresented in the boardrooms and there exists a clear disparity between gender representation on the boards of crown and corporate companies with women being disadvantaged in the private sector. Includes interview material from women who have successfully achieved directorships and examines the approaches they adopted. Outlines some positive steps to assist women in the bid for corporate directorship, but suggests that the challenge of changing corporate and societal attitudes remains.

Changes to government policy, deregulation and corporatization in New Zealand have influenced the number and status of women on boards of directors. Using company records, archival material and interviews, this paper seeks to examine gender equity on boards of directors in New Zealand and compare the progress of women on the boards of corporate companies in the private sector with those on crown company boards in the public sector.

The paper includes interview material from women who have successfully achieved directorships and examines the approaches they adopted. The paper uses company records and interviews to achieve this aim.

While increasing numbers of New Zealand women are entering the business arena, they continue to be underrepresented in the boardrooms and there exists a clear disparity between gender representation on the boards of crown and corporate companies with women being disadvantaged in the private sector.

The paper outlines some positive steps to assist women in the bid for corporate directorship, but suggests that the challenge of changing corporate and societal attitudes remains.

Using social identity theory as a framework, the present study empirically tests the idea that women can maintain positions on corporate boards over a number of years through becoming part of the board’s ingroup. A sample of 32 women directors who were part of a study of corporate directors in 1995 participated in the six‐year follow‐up. A series of hypotheses are tested using nonparametric statistical techniques to test differences in women directors’ personal and board characteristics over the two time periods. Implications of the results are drawn for women seeking to maintain or gain board positions and for the applicability of social identity theory to the research area.

The stagnation in the position of female directorships in the UK’s FTSE 100 companies appears to be very slowly changing. After a review of previous research on women directors, this paper reports the statistics on women directors in the top 100 listed companies. The paper comments on the findings regarding companies with women directors, female directorships and the women holding those directorships. It reviews the backgrounds (demographic profiles including age, education, marital status and children; corporate experience, international experience, etc.) of the top women executive directors. The paper also examines the minority of top companies with women executive directors, to see how their particular characteristics and contingencies (e.g. sector, chairmen, CEO and board demographics) may have influenced the environment as incubators for these successful women. The paper considers the findings through several theoretical lenses for explanations of the results, and conclude by commenting on the progress being made in other European countries.

Corporate directors have almost exclusively been white males. Women have been increasingly appointed to corporate boards but their numbers remain small at about five per cent (Gillies, 1992; Lorsch & MacIver, 1989). Several studies have provided a picture of the demographic characteristics of directors. Although the specific details and numbers vary slightly from study to study, results are consistent and strong. Corporate directors form a rather homogeneous group. Of all Fortune 1000 directors, 94% were white males, 67% were over 55 years of age, and 63% were CEOs of other corporations.

Increasing research attention has been devoted to understanding the roles and responsibilities of boards of directors of North American corporations (Gillies, 1992; Lorsch & Maclver, 1989; Fleischer, Hazard & Klipper, 1988). This has resulted, in part, from increased interest in corporate governance. Scholars continue to explore and debate the question of who controls and is responsible for the activities and performance of corporations in a democratic society (Vance, 1983; Worthy & Neushel, 1982). In addition, the veil of privacy that had historically been accorded CEOs and board members is slowly being lifted. As a result, information about the membership and working of corporate boards of directors is starting to accumulate (Gillies, 1992). Corporate boards of directors also came under increased scrutiny and criticism during the 1980s because of specific decisions made by them (e.g. hostile takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, golden parachutes, excessive levels of executive compensation) and the generally low performance levels of North American organisations in the international marketplace. The latter has resulted in several suggestions for improving the effectiveness of corporate boards (Barrett, 1993; Patton & Baker, 1987; Salmon, 1993; Leighton & Thain, 1993). Suggestions have included the separation of the CEO/Board chairman roles, improved selection of directors, training of directors, clarifying roles and responsibilities of directors (and CEOs), and replacing directors who are not performing well.

This study aims to examine how woman leadership (i.e., woman board chairperson, woman chief executive officer (CEO) and board gender diversity) affects audit fee and also ascertained the interactive effect of woman leadership and gender diversity on audit committee on audit fee.

The study applied ordinary least square and fixed-effect estimators on the data of 21 universal banks in Ghana for the period 2010–2021 to estimate the empirical results.

It is revealed that under the leadership of women (woman CEO and board gender diversity), higher external audit quality is ensured as higher audit fee is paid. Interestingly, it was found that with the presence of women on the audit committee, the integrity of internal controls and internal audit procedures are enhanced, which leads to quality financial reporting, calls for lower audit effort, hence lower audit fee.

The result indicates that firms can rely on the leadership of women in ensuring quality external audit and quality financial reporting, which ultimately helps to minimize the information risk to all stakeholders.

The paper contributes to extant literature by establishing that, under the leadership of women in banking entities from a developing country context, external audit quality and financial reporting are achieved.

Corporate governance and the role and functions of boards of directors have emerged as critical topics for organizations and the broader society in which they exist. As there appears to be a shortage of qualified and committed directors capable of bringing experience, knowledge, and time to these important jobs, the timing for increasing qualified women’s representation on corporate boards is opportune. This collection of papers by an international group of scholars identifies initiatives needed by organizations to increase women’s representation as well as a research agenda to further our understanding of board dynamics and functioning.

This paper aims to provide an exploratory analysis of male and female directors, comparing the case of UK FTSE 350 boards of directors for 2010–2018, with Norwegian boards from 2002 to 2018, to examine patterns of busy female directors. This paper considers the differences between the effects of interest groups’ actions and those of quotas on the emergence of busy female directors.

This paper uses a longitudinal approach, providing an examination of both non-busy directors and busy directors sitting on the boards of UK and Norwegian firms, with a focus on female directors. Drawing on methods from social network analysis, several trends and patterns are mapped for the two corporate systems. The paper tests whether the proportion of busy male directors is significantly different from the proportion of busy female directors in the two institutional settings.

The results show there has been an increase in the proportion of busy female directors, whereas the level of busy male directors is slightly decreasing in the UK from 2010 to 2018. In Norway, following the introduction of gender quotas on corporate boards, there has been an increase in overboarded directors, especially female directors, along with the rise of so-called “golden skirt” directors. However, when compared to the UK case, the proportion of busy male and female directors is higher, suggesting that the emergence of the golden skirts in Norway is not a result of quotas alone.

The topic of busy directors has received increased attention in recent years, yet the gender of these directors is often neglected. This paper provides an overview of the characteristics of busy female directors for large UK and Norwegian firms, presenting avenues for future research.