WOMEN ON BOARD AND VALUE ADDED

The composition of the board of directors, such as its tenure, independence, ethnicity or gender is highly relevant to a firm’s outputs. Past studies have centred the attention in the relationship between the composition of boards and performance and the results have rendered mixed conclusions. One of the aspects that is vastly researched is the gender composition of boards, and, again, the studies have not, yet, shown unequivocal evidence of the relationship between the representation of women on boards and performance. Thus, in order to advance the knowledge of the role of women on boards in firms’ outputs, this study analyses the relationship between the representation of women on boards and the creation and distribution of value added for a sample of non-listed companies in Portugal from 2012 to 2021. Results show that more women on boards have a negative effect on the overall value added of a firm. Furthermore, when separating the value added by type of stakeholder, the results show that in the presence of more women on boards, top managers capture less value for themselves, while the salaries of their employees remain unaffected. Additionally, it is observable that with the presence of women on boards, managers pay less interest, pay fewer taxes, and add less value to shareholders, as well.