CEO gender and the probability that firms go public

We study the association between the gender of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the probability that firms go public through an Initial Public Offering (IPO), using data for the full population of Swedish IPO firms from 2005-2017, and matched private firms. We find that firms that go public are less likely to have a female CEO. The results are robust when we test for a change of CEO: firms that switch from a male to a female CEO are less likely to go public, and when we consider the gender balance among the board of directors