IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v32y2025i3p1018-1043.html

The second glass ceiling: The dark side of women recategorization in corporate boards

Author

Listed:
  • Bartolomé Pascual‐Fuster
  • Ryan Federo
  • Rafel Crespí‐Cladera
  • Patricia Gabaldón

Abstract

Previous research has shown evidence of the existence of glass ceilings, especially for women who face several barriers to reach the most powerful corporate positions. However, even when these women have reached the board, they seem to experience resistance within this group, a second glass ceiling that prevents them from being appointed to the most influential positions of the board. Based on categorization and recategorization theories and using a sample of publicly listed Spanish firms during the period 2004–2012, we find that women directors with characteristics that should facilitate their promotion to most board leadership and major board committee positions are not reaching them, that is, are not recategorized. Moreover, we uncover that it is also hard for women to attract more women and evolve into their own majority group, as the number of women directors does not increase when women are already directors in those boards.

Suggested Citation

  • Bartolomé Pascual‐Fuster & Ryan Federo & Rafel Crespí‐Cladera & Patricia Gabaldón, 2025. "The second glass ceiling: The dark side of women recategorization in corporate boards," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 1018-1043, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:32:y:2025:i:3:p:1018-1043
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.13185
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13185
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.13185?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Singh, Val & Terjesen, Siri & Vinnicombe, Susan, 2008. "Newly appointed directors in the boardroom:: How do women and men differ," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 48-58, February.
    2. Mariateresa Torchia & Andrea Calabrò & Morten Huse, 2011. "Women Directors on Corporate Boards: From Tokenism to Critical Mass," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(2), pages 299-317, August.
    3. Adams, Renée B. & Ferreira, Daniel, 2009. "Women in the boardroom and their impact on governance and performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 291-309, November.
    4. Bibek Bhattacharya & Ipsu Khadka & Dalhia Mani, 2022. "Shaking Up (and Keeping Intact) the Old Boys’ Network: The Impact of the Mandatory Gender Quota on the Board of Directors in India," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(4), pages 763-778, May.
    5. Jennifer M. Knippen & Wei Shen & Qi Zhu, 2019. "Limited progress? The effect of external pressure for board gender diversity on the increase of female directors," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(7), pages 1123-1150, July.
    6. Stephen Brammer & Andrew Millington & Stephen Pavelin, 2007. "Gender and Ethnic Diversity Among UK Corporate Boards," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 393-403, March.
    7. Saeed, Abubakr & Belghitar, Yacine & Yousaf, Amna, 2016. "Firm-level determinants of gender diversity in the boardrooms: Evidence from some emerging markets," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 1076-1088.
    8. Angel Ellul Fenech & Shireen Kanji & Zsuzsanna Vargha, 2022. "Gender‐based exclusionary practices in performance appraisal," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 427-442, March.
    9. Boone, Audra L. & Casares Field, Laura & Karpoff, Jonathan M. & Raheja, Charu G., 2007. "The determinants of corporate board size and composition: An empirical analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 66-101, July.
    10. Dibrell, Clay & Marshall, David R. & Palar, Jennifer M. & Gentry, Richard J., 2019. "New director selection during growth in family-influenced and lone founder firms: An identity fit perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 1-11.
    11. Ai, Chunrong & Norton, Edward C., 2003. "Interaction terms in logit and probit models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 123-129, July.
    12. Lee, Wei-Ming, 2020. "The determinants and effects of board committees," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    13. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    14. Qi, Meng & Armstrong, Steven J. & Yang, Zaoli & Li, Xiaoyi, 2022. "Cognitive diversity and team creativity: Effects of demographic faultlines, subgroup imbalance and information elaboration," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 819-830.
    15. Brian L. Connelly & Robert E. Hoskisson & Laszlo Tihanyi & S. Trevis Certo, 2010. "Ownership as a Form of Corporate Governance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(8), pages 1561-1589, December.
    16. repec:bla:jomstd:v:47:y:2010:i:s2:p:1561-1589 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Rita Goyal & Nada Kakabadse & Andrew Kakabadse & Danielle Talbot, 2023. "Female board directors' resilience against gender discrimination," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 197-222, January.
    18. Field, Laura Casares & Souther, Matthew E. & Yore, Adam S., 2020. "At the table but can not break through the glass ceiling:Board leadership positions elude diverse directors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(3), pages 787-814.
    19. Orhun Guldiken & Mark R. Mallon & Stav Fainshmidt & William Q. Judge & Cynthia E. Clark, 2019. "Beyond tokenism: How strategic leaders influence more meaningful gender diversity on boards of directors," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(12), pages 2024-2046, December.
    20. Isabel Fernandez-Mateo & Sarah Kaplan, 2018. "Gender and Organization Science: Introduction to a Virtual Special Issue," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(6), pages 1229-1236, December.
    21. Liu, Yu & Wei, Zuobao & Xie, Feixue, 2014. "Do women directors improve firm performance in China?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 169-184.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sharmin Nahar & Mohammed Shamsul Karim & Vania Sena, 2026. "How Do Unexpected Networks Help Female Entrepreneurs in the Global South Survive in Adverse Contexts? A Case Study of Bangladesh," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 132-163, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eline Schoonjans & Hanna Hottenrott & Achim Buchwald, 2024. "Welcome on Board? Appointment Dynamics of Women as Directors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 192(3), pages 561-589, July.
    2. Ma, Mingze, 2022. "Gendered performance evaluation in CEO turnover," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    3. Nguyen, Thi Hong Hanh & Ntim, Collins G. & Malagila, John K., 2020. "Women on corporate boards and corporate financial and non-financial performance: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    4. Paula M. Infantes & Ryan Federo & Bartolomé Pascual-Fuster, 2026. "Follow the Leader: The Double-Edged Cascading Effect of Board Gender Diversity Practices in Hierarchical Business Groups," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 206(3), pages 437-459, July.
    5. Nakajima, Kan & Shirasu, Yoko & Kodera, Eiji, 2025. "Tokenism in gender diversity on board of directors," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    6. Joanna Tyrowicz & Hubert Drazkowski, 2024. "Gender tokenism in corporate boardrooms in Europe," GRAPE Working Papers 97, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    7. Tleubayev, Alisher & Bobojonov, Ihtiyor & Gagalyuk, Taras & Glauben, Thomas, 2020. "Board gender diversity and firm performance: evidence from the Russian agri-food industry," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 23(01).
    8. Arjun Mitra & Corinne Post & Steve Sauerwald, 2021. "Evaluating Board Candidates: A Threat-Contingency Model of Shareholder Dissent Against Female Director Candidates," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(1), pages 86-110, January.
    9. Bennouri, Moez & Chtioui, Tawhid & Nagati, Haithem & Nekhili, Mehdi, 2018. "Female board directorship and firm performance: What really matters?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 267-291.
    10. Rey Đặng & Lubica Hikkerova & Michel Simioni & Jean-Michel Sahut, 2023. "How do women on corporate boards shape corporate social performance? Evidence drawn from semiparametric regression," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 330(1), pages 361-388, November.
    11. Konadu, Renata & Ahinful, Gabriel Sam & Boakye, Danquah Jeff & Elbardan, Hany, 2022. "Board gender diversity, environmental innovation and corporate carbon emissions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    12. Biswas, Shreya & Sarkar, Jayati & Selarka, Ekta, 2025. "Women director interlocks and firm performance: Evidence from India," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    13. Lu, Yun & Ntim, Collins G. & Zhang, Qingjing & Li, Pingli, 2022. "Board of directors’ attributes and corporate outcomes: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    14. Chen, Yi-Wen & Chu, Li-Hong & Lin, Chu-Bin & Zhao, Ping-Yu, 2025. "CEO gender and M&As: New evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    15. Luong, Hoa & Khedmati, Mehdi & Nguyen, Lan Anh & Nigmonov, Asror & Ovi, Nafisa Zabeen & Shams, Syed, 2023. "CEO-director ties and board gender diversity: US evidence," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    16. Leonardo Gambacorta & Alessio Reghezza & Martina Spaggiari & Livia Pancotto, 2022. "Gender diversity in bank boardrooms and green lending: evidence from euro area credit register data," BIS Working Papers 1044, Bank for International Settlements.
    17. Baghdadi, Ghasan A. & Safiullah, Md & Heyden, Mariano L.M., 2023. "Do gender diverse boards enhance managerial ability?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    18. Franco Ernesto Rubino & Paolo Tenuta & Domenico Rocco Cambrea, 2017. "Board characteristics effects on performance in family and non-family business: a multi-theoretical approach," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 21(3), pages 623-658, September.
    19. Emma García-Meca & Domingo J. Santana-Martín, 2023. "Board gender diversity and performance in family firms: exploring the faultline of family ties," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 1559-1594, July.
    20. Mehdi Nekhili & Hayette Gatfaoui, 2013. "Are Demographic Attributes and Firm Characteristics Drivers of Gender Diversity? Investigating Women’s Positions on French Boards of Directors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 227-249, December.

    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:gender:v:32:y:2025:i:3:p:1018-1043. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    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.