New development: Women with altitude—exploring the influence of female presence and leadership on boards of directors

Abstract

This article reports on a study examining the influence of women on the boards of directors of NHS foundation trusts in England in the light of a recent UK government inquiry into women in senior positions. A high female presence among executive and non-executive directorships did not result in significant differences either in financial return or service quality. However, female chairs or chief executives resulted in significant reductions in negative social outcomes, such as lower clinical negligence costs, without harming financial management. The findings have important implications for gender diversity and gender targets on the boards of directors in business and other sectors.

Keywords:

• Board of directors
• corporate governance
• gender diversity
• NHS foundation trusts
• women chief executives

Acknowledgement

The study had the financial support of the Spanish National R&D Plan through the research project ECO2015-66240-P.

Notes

* The figures for FTs relate to the average in the study period 2008/09 to 2010/11 (Ellwood and Garcia Lacalle, 2015), but the figures for FTSE companies are from the Women on Boards: 5 Year Summary (Davies, 2015), which shows a considerable improvement over the 2011 position.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sheila Ellwood

Sheila Ellwood is Professor of Financial Reporting, University of Bristol, UK.

Javier Garcia-Lacalle

Javier Garcia Lacalle is Associate Professor of Accounting, University of Zaragoza, Spain.