Contextual Antecedents of Female Participation in Board of Directors: The Case of Colombia

Abstract

The objective of this study is to identify and to analyze the trends of female participation in boards of directors in Colombia from. It is argued that institutional isomorphism has influence on the dynamics of appointment of women as board members in contexts in which there are minimum formal rules to incentivize these appointments. In such way, the practices of the most visible organizations in specific contexts, exert influence on female appointments in other organizations in the same contexts. The empirical setting for this study consists of a sample of Colombian firms during 2000 to 2009. The results show that the appointment of women as board members in Colombia increases at a low rate, and that this trend is explained by contextual factors. While the appointment of women in government and industry leading firms positively explains the appointment of women board members of other firms, the appointment of women to older firm boards is low and negatively related to these appointments to the boards of other firms.