性别多样性、女性董事与企业绩效：来自中国的证据

Chapter 1.IntroductionWomen directors can be defined as female employees who gain senior managementroles and have authority to make decisions (Chapple Humphrey,2014).In manyorganizations,they are difficult to find since traditionally,women have beenchronically underrepresented at board level in corporations around the world(Chapple Humphrey,2014).Adams Ferreira,(2009)found that only a quarter ofstate-owned enterprises had more than one female director and 35%of US companieshad no female director at all.This underrepresentation is seen increasingly as a socialproblem.With the high pressure from society,the role of women as directors in acompany has grown,especially in higher levels of position.Adams and Ferreira,(2009)find that female in senior management are more diligent than theircounterparts when making important decisions leading to the improvements in firm'svalue and profitability (Sabatier,2015;Luckerath-Rovers,2011).This underrepresentation is seen increasingly as a social problem.With the highpressure from society,the role of women as directors in a company has grown.Moreand more leaders of companies and governments are appealing for an increase in thenumber of female directors,especially in higher levels of position.Firm'sperformance can be defined as the benefit of company management and the operatorperformance in a certain business period.It includes operational and financialoutcomes.Women have gained prominence,the evidence,showing that female insenior management are more diligent than their counterparts when making importantdecisions area (Adams Ferreira,2009).This is due to the strong business ethicsdisplayed in female's day to day managerial activities as well as their greaterinterpersonal skills.This can have a major influence on firm's performance (AdamsFerreira,2009).Achieving greater gender diversity at board level is not only a social goal,but also abusiness objective.This is because gender diverse boards could significantly improvethe effectiveness of corporate governance (Fama Jensen,1983).Dezso and Ross(2011)found that female directors in boards may have important implications for the-2-