Female ceos : why so few?

Abstract

There has been much debate on CEO gender and its effects on firm performance and characteristics. In this paper, we tried to explain the reasons for female chief executive officers (CEOs) fewness, while examining the attributes that might influence the appointment of female CEOs in a sample of Norwegian companies. We extended the literature since the previous research was focused mostly on the factors that influence boardroom diversity and not the CEO gender. Our analysis was based on 40,880 unique Norwegian firms over the period 2000-2014. The results of logistic regressions showed that the profitability of the company and the number of female directors on board increase the probability of CEO being a female. It is more likely that the CEO be a female in family firms and firms owned by institutional owners. The leverage ratio as debt-to-equity ratio, state ownership, and CEO being a family member variables had negative effect on the odds of the CEO being a female. The firm size in terms of number of employees and international ownership did not affect the CEO gender. The quota policy influenced successfully the CEO gender change from male to female.