The Impact of Female Directors on Corporate Social Performance

In recent years a lot of attention is assigned to Corporate Social Performance, often triggered through unethical behavior of large corporations. Particularly, public criticism is directed towards the corporate board of directors. As Corporate Social Performance incorporates social, economic and environmental issues, corporate directors have a hard time to fully understand how all three issues can be address simultaneously. Apart from that, the large picture of boardrooms still displays an old boys club where the presence of more than one woman is a rarity. On the basis of the social role theory it is argued that women possess these traits that make them better acquainted to understand and respond to the soft and quantitative nature of Corporate Social Performance. Thus, the underlying study analyzes the effect that women on the U.S. corporate board of directors have on different Corporate Social Performance dimensions.