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Gender Quotas and Support for Women in Board Elections

Author

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  • Marina Gertsberg
  • Johanna Mollerstrom
  • Michaela Pagel

Abstract

We study shareholder support for corporate board nominees before and after the 2018 California gender quota. Pre-quota, new female nominees received greater support than new male nominees, consistent with women being held to a higher standard. Post-quota, as the number of women increased, support for new (mandated) female nominees decreased to the same level of, but not lower than, the support that new male nominees enjoy. Still, share prices reacted negatively to the quota. We show that this reaction was concentrated in firms that did not turn over their least-supported male directors when adding women to comply with the quota.

Suggested Citation

  • Marina Gertsberg & Johanna Mollerstrom & Michaela Pagel, 2021. "Gender Quotas and Support for Women in Board Elections," NBER Working Papers 28463, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28463
    Note: CF LS
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    Cited by:

    1. Gormley, Todd A. & Gupta, Vishal K. & Matsa, David A. & Mortal, Sandra C. & Yang, Lukai, 2023. "The Big Three and board gender diversity: The effectiveness of shareholder voice," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(2), pages 323-348.
    2. Magnus Blomkvist & Eva Liljeblom & Anders Löflund & Etienne Redor, 2025. "On the Effectiveness of Gender Quotas: Insights From Shareholder Preferences," Post-Print hal-05366293, HAL.
    3. Alin Marius ANDRIEȘ & Bogdan CAPRARU & Antonio MINGUEZ-VERA & Simona NISTOR, 2024. "Gender Diversity on Boards and Bank Efficiency Across Emerging Europe," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(3), pages 24-64, October.
    4. Byker, Tanya & Malik, Sara & Patel, Elena & Sandvik, Jason, 2025. "Board Gender Diversity and Workforce Composition, Compensation, and Retention for U.S. Publicly Traded Firms," IZA Discussion Papers 18125, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Greene, Daniel T. & Hwang, JiHoon & Intintoli, Vincent J. & Kahle, Kathleen M., 2025. "Reconciling the evidence on board diversity mandates," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination

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