The Eco Gender Gap in Boardrooms

Using novel firm- and facility-level measures of corporate environmental performance over the period 2002–2021, we establish a positive association between board gender diversity and corporate environmental performance. For identification, we exploit variations in the legal protection and economic opportunity for women in states where directors went to college or when they were college-age, and the California law change in 2018 mandating female directors for firms headquartered in California. In terms of channels, we show that female directors bring more expertise on sustainability in boardrooms than male directors, that female directors are more likely to sit on sustainability committees and key monitoring committees than male directors, and that boards with more female directors are more likely to link top executives’ compensation to corporate ESG performance. We conclude that there are important environmental benefits for board to be gender diverse