Are women greener? Corporate gender diversity and environmental violations

This study examines the relationship between board gender diversity and corporate environmental violations. Drawing on gender socialization and diversity theories, greater female board representation and female chief executive officers (CEO) are expected to reduce the frequency of corporate environmental violations. Empirical evidence in this study shows that firms with greater board gender diversity are less often sued for environmental infringements. In contrast, CEO gender is linked to reduced environmental litigation only in firms with low female board representation. I explore the relationship between board gender diversity and improved corporate environmental policies as a mechanism to explain the reduced litigation frequency. The findings are robust to controlling for reverse causality, propensity score matching, subsample analyses, different variable definitions, alternative model specifications, and industry controls and adjustments. These findings provide important insights to investors, managers, and policymakers into the role of female leadership in public companies.