Do Women in Top Management Affect Firm Performance? Evidence from Indonesia

This paper investigates the relationship between gender diversity on management boards and financial performance of Indonesian listed companies. We conduct cross-sectional regression analysis based on a sample comprising 92.4 percent of public firms listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). We find that the representation of female top executives is negatively related to both accounting and market performance, suggesting that female representation is not associated with improved level of performance. From correlation analysis, our results also reveal that smaller firms, which tend to be family-controlled, are more likely to have higher proportion of female members on management boards. This implies that large firms are “tougher” for women in terms of opportunities to hold seats on the board