Women directors on corporate boards and its Impact on economy

Abstract

Introduction Gender diversity in companies has been an important issue for a long time. Many countries have implemented various policies to promote gender diversity by including a quota for women on the board of directors starting with Norway (40 % quota for women in corporate boards). Different studies have something different to say about the result of gender diversity on board; some say it positively impacts the company's performance, while some say it has a negative effect. But most studies comply with the former view. India made it compulsory for all publicly listed firms to have at least one-woman director as a board member from April 2015 in the 2013 Companies Act. But sometimes, companies manage to find loopholes and appoint dummy directors; the dependent director can be one way of doing that. The chances of symbolic action, i.e., hiring dummy board members, are salient in emerging markets where corporate transparency is very low and less progressive societal attitude toward gender equality. We must analyse the differences between male and female board members, starting from the presence on committees, independent directorship, duration on the board, and many other data to point out discrimination. Hiring women board members will only create an impact when they will bring different angles, viewpoints and perspectives from their male counterparts. Through this project, study the impact of the Companies Act 2013 on gender diversity and disparity in the board of directors in Indian listed companies. We will analyse the business case behind increasing board diversity and what economic benefits (using ratios like return on asset and return on equity) companies can derive from the same. How are the companies going about implementing it? What is the progress till now? The scope of our research will be all NSE-listed companies from 2013 to 2021.