Consequences of Corporate Quotas : A quantitative study of the effects of boardroom gender quotas on German companies’ attention to gender equality

Sammanfattning: Despite global progress on gender equality, women continue to be underrepresented in politics and business. One widely debated policy measure aimed at tackling this issue is statutory gender quotas for the boards of directors of listed companies – so-called corporate quotas – which have been adopted in more than a dozen countries worldwide, yet remain understudied in the gender and politics literature. This thesis addresses that research gap and explores the broader impacts of corporate quota policies, in particular whether a quota law increases companies’ attention to gender equality and women-friendly workplace policies in areas beyond the boardroom. Focusing on the case of Germany, which adopted a corporate quota law in 2015, I use companies’ annual and sustainability reports to measure corporate attention to gender equality over a period of ten years (2011–2020). I exploit variation in the scope of the German law by employing a difference-in-differences method to compare outcomes for companies targeted by the quota law and companies that fell outside of the law’s reach, before and after quota adoption. Contrary to theoretical expectations and earlier research, no significant effects are found, indicating that German companies’ inclination to work with gender equality and women-friendly workplace policies remains largely unaffected by the quota policy. This suggests that although gender quotas may enhance women’s numerical representation by increasing the share of female members on corporate boards, they make little difference for firms’ broader gender equality work.