Women on Boards, Integrity in Business: Board Gender Diversity and Responsible Firm Conduct in the Anglo-American Context

Abstract

This thesis aims to extend prior research by examining how board gender diversity (BGD) influences three dimensions of responsible corporate conduct: (1) environmental and social performance (ESP), (2) corporate fraud, and (3) tax avoidance, in the Anglo-American contexts. It evaluates whether gender-diverse boards contribute to sustainable, ethical and transparent governance or if their effects vary by institutional setting. The broad findings of this thesis are that overall, BGD enhances firms’ ESP and reduces tax avoidance but does not exert a significant influence on corporate fraud.

Conceptually, the thesis is grounded in stakeholder theory, critical mass theory, and the institutional perspective, which together explain how gender-diverse boards influence corporate behaviour. Stakeholder theory suggests that female directors enhance a firm’s responsiveness to broader stakeholder interests, critical mass theory argues that meaningful influence occurs when women reach sufficient representation, and the institutional perspective highlights the role of regulatory and societal pressures in shaping board effectiveness.

This thesis consists of three empirical chapters. The first empirical study examines the relationship between BGD and ESP using 4,255 UK FTSE All-Share firm-year observations from 2004 to 2021. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and two-stage least squares (2SLS) results reveal a positive and significant association between female board representation and firms’ environmental and social outcomes. The findings highlight that female non-executive directors and the attainment of a critical mass strengthen ESP, while female executive presence alone does not yield additional effects.

The second study explores whether gender-diverse boards mitigate corporate fraud among US firms from 1999 to 2019. Leveraging the 2017 “Big Three” investor stewardship campaign as an external governance shock, the analysis finds no statistically significant relationship between BGD and fraud occurrence. This relation was tested employing logistic regression and propensity score matching (PSM) techniques. The findings challenge the assumption that female board representation reduces misconduct and emphasises the importance of board inclusion quality and institutional pressures in shaping governance outcomes.
The third study examines the association between BGD and corporate tax avoidance for US listed firms during 2008-2021 using the effective tax rate (ETR) as the primary proxy. Fixed effects and alternative logit models consistently show that firms with higher female board representation engage in less aggressive tax behaviour. This suggests that gender-diverse boards foster greater transparency and social responsibility.

Date of Award	20 Apr 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Bangor University
Supervisor	Danial Hemmings (Supervisor) & Aziz Jaafar (Supervisor)