Corporate Board gender diversity is a hot topic globally. There seems no reliable consensus though as to what causes the imbalance in the first case.
Some studies have noted that golfers and smokers, activities that less women than men seem drawn to, get promoted by bosses who they share time with in these activities. Could (hard) alcohol consumption be part of the mix too though, another activity less women than men seem drawn to?
Jianpin Deng and Di Lu, both at the Lingnan College of the Sun Yat-sen University identified an event in China that could help them isolate alcohol consumption in this discussion.
In December 2012 the Chinese government effectively banned schmoozing between corporate executives and local government officials, an activity notoriously alcohol fueled.
The value of capable women should therefore have risen after this event and more would be expected to turn up on company boards as a result.
The bottom line is that female board participation over the study period, 2009~2014 i.e. 3-years either side of the ‘shock’ increased among the 2,799 firms in the study from 14.5% to 18.3%, a highly significant shift.
The researchers subject their work to an impressive battery of tests to make sure they’re correctly identifying the alcohol effect and their work isn’t being affected by other variables.
Satisfied alcohol is the swing factor they conclude with an analysis of the seniority of female directors and here the work is less inspiring. Over the period the number of women on Boards rose but those in senior positions within those boards hardly budged.
Moreover, they note that non participation in traditionally male-centric practices like smoking, golf and the issue of motherhood remain as variables that all contribute to women being underrepresented in company management.
You can access the work in full via the following link The Old Boy’s Club and Board Gender Diversity.
Happy Sunday.