IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v185y2024ics0148296324004338.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender discrimination lawsuits: How board gender diversity impacts gender litigation likelihood and outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Steele, Clarissa R.
  • Berns, John P.
  • Schnatterly, Karen A.

Abstract

Gender discrimination in firms is an ongoing problem, yet we know little about whether board gender diversity affects gender discrimination litigation. Boards are an important and visible component of an organization’s leadership and are positioned to influence firm policies and attitudes. Using social identity theory, we consider how board gender diversity impacts firms that face gender discrimination lawsuits. Furthermore, we explore how greater board gender diversity provides reputational capital which acts as insurance against litigation outcomes. Using a dataset of gender discrimination lawsuits and experiments simulating jury decision making, we hypothesize that more gender diversity on the board will protect firms from gender discrimination litigation and its outcomes. We find that firms with greater board gender diversity are at a higher likelihood of incurring gender discrimination litigation yet receive more favorable decisions by judges and juries including a greater likelihood of receiving favorable verdicts and of paying lower damages.

Suggested Citation

  • Steele, Clarissa R. & Berns, John P. & Schnatterly, Karen A., 2024. "Gender discrimination lawsuits: How board gender diversity impacts gender litigation likelihood and outcomes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:185:y:2024:i:c:s0148296324004338
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114929
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296324004338
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114929?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:185:y:2024:i:c:s0148296324004338. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.