IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v34y2025i4p5075-5094.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender Diversity Leadership and ESG Performance: The Influence of Women on Boards and in Management

Author

Listed:
  • Davide Sandretto
  • Alessandro Rizzi
  • Gabriella Esposito

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing interest among companies and regulatory bodies in adhering to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards, alongside an increased involvement of women in organizational decision‐making processes. In this study, we investigate the potential advantages of female representation in leadership positions on the firms' ESG performance. Using a dataset comprising 2646 public companies across Europe, America, and Asia from 2013 to 2022, we find a significant positive correlation between gender diversity and companies' sustainability performance. However, a granular analysis of the three pillars (environment, social, and governance) reveals nuanced results. Specifically, board gender diversity is only positively related to the governance score, but females in managerial positions are associated with higher social scores. These findings consistently hold after conducting a series of robustness tests to address endogeneity concerns. Our study provides practical implications for policymakers and practitioners, advocating for greater engagement of women in leadership roles.

Suggested Citation

  • Davide Sandretto & Alessandro Rizzi & Gabriella Esposito, 2025. "Gender Diversity Leadership and ESG Performance: The Influence of Women on Boards and in Management," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 5075-5094, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:34:y:2025:i:4:p:5075-5094
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.4241
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.4241
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.4241?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:34:y:2025:i:4:p:5075-5094. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.