Close The Boardroom Door – Women Can Hurt Performance!
Nope that isn’t from the chauvinists guide to corporate governance, it’s the conclusion of a study to be published in the Journal of Financial Economics.
Research carried out by Daniel Ferreira, from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Renée Adams , from the University of Queensland, shows that having more women in the boardroom can hurt the financial performance of well-governed companies. The study found that, on average, companies with proportionally more women on their boards were less profitable and had a lower market value.
The researchers also said “meddling” with boards could produce unexpected results.
Stats show that despite recent equality-based reforms, in FTSE 100 companies women still hold less than 12 per cent of directorships. The question now is whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing?
In the FT Mr Ferreira was quick to point out that his research was not intended to send the message that “we need less women on boards”.
“A board is not, after all, exclusively directed towards profit,” Mr Ferreira said.
Tell that to the shareholders.
August 12, 2009
What a crock!
August 12, 2009
Didn’t we all know this anyway?
August 12, 2009
Of course we did… just not politcally correct to admit it!
August 12, 2009
If women hold fewer than 12% of Directorships, can there be an adequate amount of data to support a generalised and dubious statistic ?
August 13, 2009
I would tell James and Kieron to be careful with their comments the word DISCRIMINATION is springing very much to mind in relation to the above article!
September 3, 2009
Shame on the journal for publishing such backward thinking trash! I await the onslaught of criticism. There must be a study out there that contradicts. Why isn’t that reported here for balance?