The Impact of Female Directors on Firm Performance and Financial Reporting Practices: Empirical Evidence from Listed Insurance Companies in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, the number of women on board is very low. The purpose of this study is to analyze and examine whether female director representation has any impact on firm performance and firm’s financial reporting practices where reporting practices involve reporting IFRS-4 requirements practices for insurance contract. A simple linear regression model is conducted to examine the two research questions of this study. This study analyzes secondary data from annual reports of all the listed insurance companies in Bangladesh during the period 2017 from Dhaka Stock Exchange. There are two research questions: (1) whether female directors have any impact on firm performance, (2) whether female directors have any impact on firm’s reporting practices. For the first research question the regression result indicates that there is little evidence that female directors have a positive relation on firm performance as the estimation lack significance. And for the second research question the regression result shows that there is negative relation between female director representation and firm’s reporting practices but again the estimation lacks significance. For lack of proper recruitment process for female directors and deficiency of awareness about disclosure reporting, this research fails to exhibit significant results.