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There is a large literature advocating the importance of a greater proportion of women directors on boards of publicly listed firms. The purpose of this paper is to examine the numbers and proportions of women directors, including women executive directors, on listed Australian Real Estate Management and Development (REMD) companies to identify how prevalent women directors are on such boards.

The study examines the numbers and proportions of women directors for 35 REMDs in 2011 and compares this to the broad board composition data on 1,715 Australian Stock Exchange listed entities. Statistically significant findings are evident due to the identified low proportions.

The study finds that of all the Financials Sub Industry sector groups, REMDs have the lowest proportion of female directors on theirs boards – eight women on each of 35 company boards compared to 159 men on these 35 boards at 2011. Of the eight, there were only two women executive directors on boards compared to 50 men. Statistically, it appears that having women directors on REMD boards is not considered important. Even at December 2014, there are only ten women on seven company boards and only one remaining executive director of an REMD company.

Given that female board representation is positively related to accounting returns and that there is a growing voice for legislation to impose mandatory proportions of women directors on boards around the world, it may be in the interests of REMD boards to consider appointing more women more quickly.

The study is the first to examine the numbers and proportions of women directors amongst REMD companies to identify the paucity of such women 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.

Inside directors are executives who hold the dual roles of officers of the firm and corporate board members. Six women inside directors from Fortune 1,000 corporations were interviewed for this exploratory study. Through systematic coding of the interviews, two independent dimensions of influence and inclusion emerged as the critical factors that enhance or restrict the performance and contributions of women at the top of corporations. Three sub‐themes characterized women inside directors’ influence: their role in the board’s decision making, the bases of influence, and influence strategies used. Three sub‐themes characterized the inclusion dynamics experienced by women inside directors: support and acceptance, exclusion, and the nature of the advice they received. Conclusions are drawn regarding the convergence of the influence and inclusion dynamics for women to function most effectively at the top of corporations.

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.

Highlights the historical set‐up of Canadian boards of directors, why and how women were first appointed to corporate boards. Examines factors related to women serving on corporate boards, detailing advantages and barriers to the appointments. Reports on a survey of Canadian Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) which considers factors related to the appointment of women to corporate boards. Results indicated the CEOs′ opinions on, for example, how important a variety of qualifications is to the appointment of female directors; the women with difficulties in finding women with these qualifications; preferred candidate profiles; issues which would benefit from a female perspective; effects of women on boards and companies; and the question of why there are not more women directors. Finally, with the survey as a background, looks at why there are so few women on the boards of directors of Canadian private sector organizations; and the future prospects of women as board members.

While the absence of female directors on corporate boards in New Zealand is controversial, little is known about the first wave of women in boardrooms in the private sector. This benchmark study, a questionnaire survey, provides the first demographic data about females in the boardrooms of the top 200 companies. The findings show that only 4.4 per cent of directors of major companies in New Zealand are female. Analyses the relevant skill base for directorship, the barriers to recruitment and male cronyism as a factor in the gender imbalance. The findings show that a high public profile is important for women wanting to open the boardroom door. Suggests that agencies which target potential directors apply conservative criteria which discriminate against the qualified but untested female candidate.

Reports a study into the way in which women on Canadian corporate boards of directors perceived and defined their board roles and responsibilities. Concludes that women directors are functioning as champions for change on women′s issues. Suggests ways in which organizations can reap benefits in terms of the interaction of women directors with senior‐level women.

We enjoin stakeholder theory, radical-cultural feminist theory, and critical race theory with critical intersectionality to critique findings which suggest that there still are significantly more men than women on nearly every Fortune 500 board of directors, with only six corporations featuring (50-50%) gender equity in 2017. Also, only 4.1% board members are women of color and 9% are men of color. Sixty-five people of color on corporate boards serve on more than one board. This means there are even fewer people of color filling top corporate leadership positions than meets the eye. The proposed alternative course of action is for boards of directors to follow the example of the small handful of peer Fortune 500 corporations that have achieved greater levels of board diversity, equity, and inclusion.

This paper examines the US opera sector as a means for interrogating how varying forms of non-standard work shape gender inequality in the creative industries.

The authors draw on 16 seasons of opera production data from Operabase.com to conduct a gender-based exploratory data analysis of the key creative roles of conductor, director and designers, as well as the hiring networks through which teams are formed, at the 11 largest opera companies in the United States.

The authors find that women, as a group, experienced gender-based disadvantage across the key creative roles of opera production, but particularly in the artistic leadership roles of conductor and director. The authors also find that women's exclusion in the field is being further perpetuated by the sector's non-standard and overlapping employment structures, which impacts women practitioners' professional visibility and career opportunities.

The study can help organizations implement strategic hiring practices that acknowledge the relationship between gender inequality and varying forms of non-standard work with the aim of increasing women's representation.

This study work establishes the scale of gender inequality operating within a sector that has received minimal scholarly attention as a site of employment. The study analysis also offers important insight for the wider creative industries and highlights opportunities to redress gender inequality in other sectors where project-based work is prevalent.

This study aims to analyze the connection between institutional isomorphic pressures and both women serving on boards and women’s influence on boards within large American firms.

This study examines a longitudinal panel data set of all Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500 organizations across a seven-year period from 2009 to 2015.

The analyses affirm that institutional isomorphic pressures impact the prevalence and influence of women on boards. Evidence suggests that coercive and normative pressures strongly impact the number of women serving as corporate directors, whereas the power of women directors is linked only to mimetic pressures.

The research suggests that to increase the number of women serving as directors, the industry must first increase the overall number of women serving in senior management roles. Once women directors gain a critical mass of three women on the board, the association with the total number of women directors, the number of boards upon which they concurrently serve, the power of women directors being selected to board leadership and the influence of women directors increase.

This paper extends existing board diversity work by examining institutional pressures at the international, national and firm levels. By examining the relationship between coercive, normative and mimetic pressures on both the prevalence of women on boards and the influence of women on boards, the authors illuminate certain mechanisms that shape the likelihood of board appointment and placement in more powerful positions.