The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2514-4774.htm

Gender diversity and firm Gender

diversity and
performances suffering from firm
performances
financial distress:
evidence from Indonesia 91
Ahmad Abbas Received 6 December 2022
Revised 23 February 2023
Department of Sharia and Islamic Business Economics, Accepted 6 May 2023
Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Negeri Majene, Majene, Indonesia, and
Andi Ayu Frihatni
Department of Sharia Accounting, Institut Agama Islam Negeri Parepare,
Parepare, Indonesia

Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to demonstrate gender diversity in the structure of corporate governance and test
the effect of diversity on the firm performance suffering from financial distress.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper is quantitative using a sample of 467 public firms in Indonesia.
Data were analyzed into statistics descriptive and the hypothesis was tested using the test of logistic
regression.
Findings – The preliminary results of the paper demonstrate the number of firms employing women and men
in the structure of corporate governance of 13% on the commissioner board, 7% on the director board and 5%
on the audit committee. Based on the test of effect, this paper further found that firms employing women and
men (gender diversity) in the structure of the board of commissioners, tend to suffer from financial distress
lower than firms only employing men (non-gender diversity).
Research limitations/implications – This paper is not an effort to make the proportion of voices of women
equal to men, however the representation of women at least exists in the structure of corporate governance as
part of workforce diversity and inclusivity. In addition, this paper is considered not to use panel data with the
purpose of avoiding repetitive data because of the use of a nominal scale in the logistic regression model.
Practical implications – The finding of the paper is addressed to deliver insights into the current
conversation on the issue of women’s day with the theme of Each for Equal and to firms in positioning women
in the structure of boardrooms.
Originality/value – This paper extends the limited scholarly work on the nexus between gender diversity
and financial performance. The framework of social identity theory and the tenet of corporate governance are
elaborated to disclose the finding that firm shareholders tend to benefit from gender diversity in the structure of
the commissioner board.
Keywords Corporate governance, Distress, Diversity, Financial performance, Gender
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Gender is terminologically different with sex, woman and man. If it is defined in a particular
non-biological aspect, the meaning is broader. This research, for example, is on the business
aspect. It will also be extended by connecting with behavior, role, and appearance in

© Ahmad Abbas and Andi Ayu Frihatni. Published in Journal of Capital Markets Studies. Published by
Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for Journal of Capital Markets Studies
Vol. 7 No. 1, 2023
both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication pp. 91-107
and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/ Emerald Publishing Limited
2514-4774
legalcode DOI 10.1108/JCMS-12-2022-0045
JCMS encountering problems and making decisions on firm performance. Ruisah (2018) stated that
7,1 gender is a cultural concept used to distinguish roles, behaviors, mentalities, and emotional
characteristics between men and women in society.
Gender equality is an issue voiced annually by women. March 18th is World Women’s
Day. In 2020, the theme of raised in women’s day was Each for Equal which specifically
wants gender equality not only involving women’s issues in society, but also in business
issues. Women’s involvement is considered so important for business development. This
92 issue certainly encourages a research in the context of gender to be conducted. What’s
more, securities and exchange commission in the USA have approved regulations for firms
to disclose information regarding gender diversity (Dhir, 2015). In the business area,
women business leaders are more likely to pay attention to social value than men
(Hechvarria et al., 2017) so gender diversity is more investigated in the business sector.
This research is not designed as conducted by prior studies (Allison et al., 2023; Kuzey et al.,
2022; Naeem et al., 2022), and some of the findings are mixed (Abdullah, 2014; Abdullah and
Ismail, 2013; Carter et al., 2010; Endraswati, 2018; Fathonah, 2018; Gonz
alez et al., 2020;
Marquez-Cardenas et al., 2022; Mohammad et al., 2018; Ramadhani and Adhariani, 2017;
Thanh Tu et al., 2015).
Since International Finance Corporation released its report in 2019 (IFC, 2019) stating that
the representation of women in business leadership positions is able to perform well in the
company, gender diversity in the business sector should be highlighted. In its report,
companies involving a proportion of female directors produced an average performance of
ROA and ROE was higher than firms involving female directors. In addition, Charles et al.
(2018) further found a positive effect of women’s involvement in leading the increase into the
market value. In regard to corporate sustainable performance with gender diversity, the
negative effect has also been found by Naeem et al. (2022).
Gender diversity in the business area has driven the improvement of the firm performance
in terms of ROA, ROE and stock value. In prior studies (Alabede, 2016; Dedunu and
Anuradha, 2020), a positive impact on the relationship between gender diversity and firm
performance has been found. It means that the inclusivity of women occupying structural
positions is considered empirically to make firms more profitable, but how is the firm
performance suffering financial distress? The increase may still occur in companies
employing both gender diversity and non-gender diversity. Differences may be in the level of
the increase, low or high, but how are they suffering financial distress? Is it same if compared
to non-distressed performances? This condition leads the scheme of research should be
designed to find additional contributions to the issue of gender diversity. In a prior study,
Zhou (2019) related financial distress to the inclusivity of women directors demonstrating
that financial distress is lower when women on the director board are occupied. The study
only focuses on the structure of the director board. Being different from the prior study, this
research extends the current finding in the literature of gender diversity in the structure of
corporate governance on the financial performance tendency by analyzing firms in the
condition of distress employing women in the structure of corporate governance including
commissioner and director board, and audit committee. These three positions are important
in driving the progress of the firm. The commissioner board can serve as a business principal
having responsibilities for supervising corporate governance fully, particularly the policy
implemented by operational executives. For independent commissioners, their positions are
not affiliated with control stocks so that the status of their independence can protect minority
shareholders in the structure of corporate governance. Furthermore, director board is a
business executive leading the management to implement vision, mission and strategy in the
companies as well as to report the outcome of performance to shareholders. Related to audit
committee, its role is to assist the commissioner in doing the supervision and auditing and
evaluating the firm performance.
 Zhou (2019) focused on examining the board of directors, whereas independent Gender
commissioners can be considered as supervisory boards in improving the corporate diversity and
governance system as previous scholars found positive effects of an independent board of
commissioners on financial distress (Widhiadnyana and Dwi Ratnadi, 2019). The increase in
firm
the number the commissioners tends to improve operational supervision systems leading to performances
better performance and avoiding financial distress (Kristanti et al., 2016). The initial purpose
of this research is to reveal gender diversity in the company’s current business structure in
Indonesia. Further purposes are to test the effects of gender diversity when companies are in 93
a state of financial distress and analyze the effects arising from those conditions. As research
contributions, the scheme of this research has been designed to differ from prior studies in
that this research identifies gender diversity in the structure of the board of commissioners,
directors and audit committees in the context of financial tendency suffering the financial
distress. Second, theoretical arguments draw insights from the elaboration of social identity
theory and literature on financial distress perspective on gender diversity so that this
research contributes to the theory in terms of financial accounting. The third contribution is
addressed practically to companies that no gender diversity in the business ownership of
commissioner boards leads to higher financial distress. The last contribution is that the
finding of this research demonstrating current descriptions regarding gender diversity in
companies in Indonesia can be a feedback in providing answers related to gender issues and
the business on world women’s day.
The following section in this paper describes literature review and method. Afterward,
results and discussion are presented in section 4. We end this paper in a conclusion containing
implications and future studies in section 5.

2. Literature review
2.1 Theory framework
The study of gender diversity associated with business performance has been widely utilized
from different points of view. Allison et al. (2023) stated that several studies theoretically
underpin resource theory for explaining gender and performance differences. Charles et al.
(2018) with the theory of resource dependence stated that companies provide open systems
depending on external organizations and environmental contingencies where they must rely
on outside organizations for obtaining human resources. Women are considered human
resources providing a more varied perspective so that this theory can be affiliated with
understanding gender diversities in the business sector. However, their research hasn’t been
able to provide a significant nexus between gender diversity and financial performance.
On the other hand, in the elaboration on stakeholder theory, inconclusive results are found by
prior researchers (Mohammad et al., 2018; Reguera-Alvarado et al., 2017; Willows and Van
Der Linde, 2016). Stakeholders in the company require the presence of women in performing.
The theory is that the presence of women brings unique perspectives in making decisions.
On the other hand, social psychology theory becomes an alternative foundation in
elaborating on gender diversity, although there is actually no significant relationship found
between gender diversity and corporate performance (Ramadhani and Adhariani, 2017).
Understanding mixed perspectives, the foundation of theory used by previous scholars is not
specifically able to elaborate on the relationship between gender diversity and the
performance of companies, particularly financial distress. Women’s inclusivity is a concept of
emphasis in building on this research and corporate governance in the companies is the initial
context in elaborating the theory of developing the hypothesis. The company is a universal
unit in which there is an organizational structure and business governance. If this is
associated with the concept of gender, the company’s organizational structure will have
JCMS functions that can involve both men and women. They are forms of gender diversity having
7,1 the same function in the business position.
Gender diversity in a business is present because of its value, experience and personality.
Abebe and Dadanlar (2019) used social identity theory for elaborating on the involvement of
women in the director board. This theory basically implies that individual knowledge that we
belong to a social group with values from group membership (Billig et al., 1991; Glassner and
Tajfel, 1985; Tajfel, 1974). An identity indicates the ways in which a person understands a role
94 in the social group. What is social? It is what you have together with others and what sets you
apart from others (Berger and Luckmann, 1966). Social identity theory in this research
underlines insights from the literature on empathy-based perspectives in terms of gender
diversity and corporate governance. In this theory, Abebe and Dadanlar (2019) found that the
presence of women reduces the occurrence of such lawsuits. When talking about identity, it
refers to groups (Ibrahim, 2003). A group is shaped by similarities or matches between
members of that group (Tajfel and Turner, 2004). It is a social system consisting of a number
of people interacting with each other and involving in one activity together because they have
a common goal and attitude.

2.2 Gender diversity and financial distress

Corporate governance is a legal and factual system directing and monitoring companies
(Belcher, 2000; Cadbury, 2000; Werder, 2011). Basically, the structure of corporate
governance is affected by various factors, especially used corporate theory, culture and
the applicable legal system. In addition, the corporate governance system also depends on the
cultural background of society and the economic and political history of a country as well as
the quality of corporate governance distinguishes companies between the best and the worst
(Daily et al., 2003). Khanchel (2007) stated that the quality of corporate governance is
important because investors, such as institutional investors, use corporate governance as one
of the assessments for firms to carry out the operational activity in capital market and
management. Therefore, good governance leads to good management and performance for
stakeholders.
Corporate governance is a set of relationships between the firm’s management, boards,
shareholders and other parties owning interests in the company. Good governance can
provide a stimulus for them to achieve goals where they should facilitate effective
supervision so as to encourage companies to use resources efficiently. In the corporate
governance structure, the implementation of Good Corporate Governance (GCG) is so
expected by all companies. The implementation of GCG commitments contained in the firm’s
mission is used as guideline for the board of commissioners in carrying out supervision and
providing advice to directors in business management, while directors can carry out the
company’s operational activities properly. In this research, social identity theory can
elaborate the structure of corporate governance in the financial distress and gender. This
research draws insights from social identity theory that social identity means similarities and
differences, personal and social and about what is shared with some people and what
distinguishes one from others. All people have a series of gender categories acting as the basis
for the creation of social identity as well as in relation to others (Moghadam, 1992). Social
identity is also a concept of one’s self as a member of the group (Billig et al., 1991). In social
identity theory, directors, commissioners and audit committees are a number of people
interacting with the business management in which they have the same objective in building
the company. Krishnan and Park (2005) found a positive nexus between organizational
performance and women’s involvement in top management structures. The proportion of
women involvements drives better ROA performance. The representation of women in the
top management of organizational structures on the board of directors leads to an increase in
conservative financial reporting and a decrease in tax aggressiveness (Khlif and Achek, Gender
2017). The increase in the value of firms is greater when the board has three or more women diversity and
directors (Gyapong et al., 2016).
The board of directors can have various beliefs when faced with an event. The direction of
firm
the board of commissioners in the management of the company is an additional assurance to performances
the board of directors. Morris et al. (2005) stated that gender diversity can affect decision-
making. The role of the audit committee is involved in assisting commissioners during
supervision and inspection, and in evaluating the firm performance. If it refers to gender, 95
biological and psychological factors influence each other’s individual personalities (Tualeka,
2017). The board of commissioners, directors and audit committees uses their personality in
making the decision. Men and women have different skills (Friedman, 1989). In the context of
psychology, such as leadership attitudes, men tend to be bold and have great responsibilities,
and their decision-making behaviors are more about taking risks, while women tend to pay
more attention to detail and to be more sensitive to non-verbal signs. Women’s leadership in
the company is found to have higher performance (Qian, 2016). The combination of behavior
and performance style is complementary so that when it is owned by the board of
commissioners, performance tends to improve. Women are able to encourage good
communication in decision making due to the inclusivity of perspective more diverse
resulting in good ideas (Hillman, 2005).
Companies with women directors show very different behaviors related to investment
decision making affecting financial performance significantly where men are more confident
but women are more conservative and cautious (Zhou, 2019). From the perspective of
investors, the existence of women directors leads the positive reactions because investors
assume that the presence of women can increase the ability of the company in implementing
better strategies when facing economic, social, and environmental problems (Loukil et al.,
2019). Therefore, the increasing representation of women can enhance the reputation and
improve financial and social performances. In addition, women are more internally focused
and more worried than men (Tamres et al., 2002). The level of the emotional condition tends to
be more felt by women (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2012). Companies employing women in business
structures appear to be less financially distressed. Stoet et al. (2013) in an experimental study
showed that women are more organized when they are under pressure. They justified that
women in stressful and complex situations are able to be silent and to think about what is
happening in front of them while men show slower and less organized when switching tasks.
Furthermore, if human integration in the organization is carried out, attitude and manner
lead to an easy strategy to set. Gender diversity in organizational governance structures can
be considered as a unique tendency in integrating human resources. Men and women tend to
be formed by different social roles resulting in unique values of work and strategic behavior
in decision-making (Davis et al., 2010). In other words, the market orientation forming the
performance is affected by gender diversity because women sometimes focus on profitability.
Women have particular skills and knowledge because they also have different experiences
and social backgrounds than men (Singh and Vinnicombe, 2004; Terjesen et al., 2009), so this
encourages additional choices in making decisions. The increasing representation of women
can boost corporate reputation and improve financial and social performance and a more
balanced gender composition is very likely to be more innovative (Østergaard et al., 2011).
The hypothesis in this research is built on the basis that companies involving diversity in
governance structures in the board of commissioners, directors and audit committees are less
likely to experience financial distress than companies not filled by women at all, nevertheless
negative effects tend to be found in the nexus between corporate governance structures
including gender diversity and the tendency of financial performance. Overall, this research
hypothesizes that gender diversity in the structure of corporate governance affects
negatively financial distress and it is subsequently outlined as follows.
JCMS H1a. Gender diversity on board of commissioners has negative effect on financial
7,1 distress
H1b. Gender diversity on board of directors has negative effect on financial distress
H1c. Gender diversity on board of audit committees has negative effect on financial
distress
96
3. Method
3.1 Research type, sample and data
Type of this research is quantitative using the effect testing on the nexus between variables.
The sample was all public business sectors in Indonesia in 2018 including 682 firms. Final
sample was 467 because there were 73 firms presenting non-Rupiah currency and 142 firms
with nonavailable data. This research used data including annual financial statements in
2018. The period of 2018 was selected because the growth in the performance of companies on
the IDX was reported positively as implied by Caesario (2019) that the research should be
more representative when the growth shows the positive level.

3.2 Research variable definition and measurements

The diversity in this research was the number of women and men in the company structure.
This research established commissioners, directors and audit committees because they were
a major line in building and driving the business. For the tendency of financial performance,
this research analyzes financial distress. Therefore, variables used gender diversity as an
independent variable and financial distress as a dependent variable.
In the dependent variable, financial distress was symbolized in DISTRESS measures
using Z-score analysis. Financial distress in this research refers to the tendency of companies
considered to suffer financial pressures. Some latest studies have reached to utilize Z-score
analysis to assess a company’s performance condition (Desiyanti et al., 2019; Olengga and
Fauzi, 2020; Pekerti and Yovita, 2019). Primasari (2018) has tested that Z-score obtains more
accurate values than other analysis tools. The Z-Score Altman models (Altman, 1968, 2013) in
this research was formulated as follows.
Companies with the sector of manufacturing business
Z ¼ 1:2X1 þ 1:4X2 þ 3:3X3 þ 0:6X4 þ 1:0X5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Model (1)

Companies with the sector of nonmanufacturing business

Z ¼ 6:56X1 þ 3:26X2 þ 6:72X3 þ 1:05X 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Model (2)

Where,
X1 5 Working capital/total assets
X2 5 Retained earnings/total assets
X3 5 Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT)/total assets
X4 5 Market value of equity/book value of total liabilities
X5 5 Revenues/total assets
If model 1 yielded a score of Z. If Z < 2.99, a company would be indicated to suffer from
financial distress, otherwise if the value of Z showed more than 2.99, a company would be
classified into financial distress. The measurement of financial tendency used Logit
DISTRESS with a value of one for distress and zero for non-distress. With respect to model 2, Gender
a company could be indicated to have non-distress, when the value of the Z-score showed diversity and
more than 2.6.
This research used gender diversity composed of three diversities in the structure of
firm
corporate governances including commissioners (GENDER_COM), directors (GENDER_DIR) performances
and audit committees (GENDER_AUDIT). The diversities were measured using a nominal
scale, taking 1 for company placing women and men, and 0 for only placing whole men. In
addition, this research involved control variables as previous studies in general related to 97
gender diversity. The cross-section data used in this research involved all industries in 2018 so
that industrial types were included as control variables. The business sectors were grouped
into three sectors, namely primary, secondary and tertiary. The category size has been used to
classify the business sector given 1 for the primary sector, and 2 for the secondary sector. For
the tertiary characteristic, there were two subsectors consisting of financial and non-financial
services, so this research divided two sub-sectors with financial services given 3 and non-
financial services given 4. The control variable is measured using a dummy scale (k-1).

3.3 Hypothesis testing

Hypotheses in this research were tested using logistic regression testing in STATA. The
equation is written as follows.
Logit DISTRESS 5 α þ β1 GENDER_COMþ β2 GENDER_DIRþ β3GENDER_
AUDIT þ β4TYPE_IND þ ε
Where,
Logit DISTRESS 5 Financial performance tendency, given 1 for distress and 0 for non-
distress
GENDER_COM 5 Gender diversity in the structure of the board of commissioners
GENDER_DIR 5 Gender diversity in the structure of the board of directors
GENDER_AUDIT 5 Gender diversity in the structure of the board of audit committees
TYPE_IND 5 Industry type
α 5 Constant and ε 5 error standard
The level of significance set in this research was at the level of α 5 1%. α 5 5% and α 5 10%.
The interpretation of this research model in using logistic effect tests. Gender diversity has a
significant effect in conditions of financial distress if the nexus between variables is at the
level under 10% and vice versa where the gender diversity within the company. The
emerging effect is likely to have two effects, namely positive and negative. The significant
effect essentially signifies that there are differences in companies placing the gender diversity
(women and men) compared to companies placing all men. When the effect is positive,
companies with gender diversity in the structure of the organization tend to suffer financial
distress compared to companies with no women at all (all held by men in the structure of the
corporate governance).

4. Results and discussion

4.1 Descriptions of gender diversity in Indonesia and results of hypothesis test
Gender diversity is identified from the presence of women and men in occupying the structure
of corporate governance. Multinational corporations are generally divided into several
sectors. In Indonesia, businesses are grouped into three sectors, namely primary, secondary
and tertiary. Based on the sector, this research classifies companies based on the primary
JCMS sector consisting of mining, agriculture and fishery industries, while the secondary sector is
7,1 manufacturing related to processing, and tertiary refers to financial and non-financial
services. The following results are described in a bar chart with blue showing the position of
the board of commissioners, red showing gender diversity in the board of directors and green
is the audit committee.
In Figure 1, the primary sector consists of the mining, agriculture and fishery industries.
We found 36 firms during the observation period. The number of companies involving
98 women and men to occupy board position was 5 firms in the commissioner (14%), 3 firms in
the director (8%) and 2 firms in the audit committee (6%), while the rest was filled entirely by
men. The following sector is the secondary sector. It relates to the manufacturing industry
with 119 firms in the observation period. Total companies involving women and men to
occupy board positions were 18 firms in the commissioner (15%), eight firms in the director
(7%) and five firms in the audit committee (4%), while the rest was filled by men.
Furthermore, the tertiary sector consists of the financial sector (87 firms) and other
services (225 firms). When comparing the two tertiary sectors, the percentage of companies
with higher gender diversity was found in financial institution than in other service sectors.
The number of companies involving women and men in the financial sectors was 13 firms in
the commissioner (15%), eight firms in the director (9%) and nine firms in the audit committee
(10%), while other service sectors had the commissioner with 23 firms (10%), the director with
16 firms (7%) and the audit committee with nine firms (4%). Overall, the finding of this
research describes that the percentage of companies involving gender diversity is very
low [1].
The next analysis is the identification of the entire sector shown in Figure 2. The results
found that there were 59 firms (13%) whose organizational structure on the board of
commissioner was held by women and men, and the remaining 408 firms were held by men
(87%). In the structure of the board of director, there were 35 firms with gender diversity (7%)
and 434 firms with non-diversity (93%), while in the audit committee, there were only 25 firms
with gender diversity (5%). These results show that gender diversity in Indonesia is very low,
but does it have effects on financial distress? The effect is further tested. This research

COMMISSIONER DIRECTOR AUDITOR_COM

94% 96% 96%

92% 93% 91% 90% 93%
90%
86% 85% 85%

14% 15% 15%

9% 10% 10%
8% 6% 7% 4% 7%
4%

WOMEN MEN WOMEN MEN WOMEN MEN WOMEN MEN

Figure 1.
Gender diversity based PRIMARY SECONDARY FINANCIAL SERVICE NON FINANCIAL SERVICE
on various sectors
Source(s): Authors own work
 Gender
100% diversity and
90%
80%
firm
70% performances
60%
50%
40% 99
30%
20%
10%
0%
COMMISSIONER DIRECTOR AUDIT
COMMITTEE
WOMEN 13% 7% 5%
Figure 2.
MEN 87% 93% 95% Board gender diversity
in all sectors
Source(s): Authors own work

already needs to identify the financial performances of companies divided into two
tendencies, distress and non-distress. Distress is a condition of the firm suffering less healthy
with Z < 2.99 for the manufacturing industry and Z < 2.6 for the non-manufacturing industry.
In Table 1, firms experiencing financial distress are 219, while there are 248 firms gaining
non-distress. Taking a closer look at Figure 3 gives information about percentage, where the
number of companies showing financial distress and non-financial distress is 47 and 53%
respectively. This result reveals that firms with financial distress have lower percentage than
those with non-distress.
Having found total companies with distress and non-distress, the effect test is conducted.
It aims to find is there a difference of companies with gender diversity in the condition of
distress and non-distress? The result of testing is presented in Table 2 as follows.

Financial tendency Number

DISTRESS 219
NON-DISTRESS 248 Table 1.
Total 467 Distress and non-
Source(s): Authors own work distress

DISTRESS NONDISTRESS

47%
53%

Figure 3.
Proportion of distress
and non-distress
Source(s): Authors own work
JCMS
7,1 LogitDISTRESS 5 α þ β1GENDER_COMþ β2GENDER_DIRþ β3GENDER_AUDIT þ β4TYPE_IND þ ε
Variabel Coef Odd t statistic Sig

GENDER_COM 1.638 0.194 4.42 0.000***

GENDER_DIR 0.114 0.891 0.31 0.758
GENDER_AUDIT 0.377 0.685 0.82 0.414
100 TYPE_IND 0.239 0.786 2.53 0.011
Constant 0.815 2.259 2.60 0.009***
Number of obs 5 467
LogLikehood Block initial 5 222.798
LogLikehood Block end 5 305.891
Note(s): LR χ 2 5 33.81***
Table 2. Pseudo R2 5 0.052
Effect test of *0.10, ** 0.05, *** 0.01
significance Source(s): Authors own work

The result of the effect test provides negative effects on their respective significance levels.
The negative effect shows that companies involving gender diversity in serving the
organizational structure tend to suffer less financial distress than those not involving
gender diversity. However, whether the negative effects were significant at the levels of
1%, 5%, or 10% established in this research? This research has found the results. The
independent variable of the commissioner board (GENDER_COM) is at the significance
level of α 5 1%, and the director board (GENDER_DIR) and the audit committee
(GENDER_AUDIT) is at the α 5 10% level respectively. Thus, the results of this research
reveal that only gender diversity in commissionerships provides a significant effect on the
independent variable (DISTRESS). The emerging effect is negative indicating that
companies involving diversity on the board of commissioners tend to suffer less financial
distress than non-diversity. This research further conducted a sensitivity analysis to find
robust and consistent significances by eliminating control variables and outlining
equation models in each sector (Type I, II, III and IV). The result has provided the same
effect as shown in Table 3.
In Table 3, all types of industry provide significant effects on the independent variable of
commissioner (GENDER_COM). The primary industry and the tertiary sector with non-
financial services (Type I and IV) obtained significance at the 0.05 level, while the secondary
industry (Type II) obtained significance at the 0.10 level and the tertiary with financial
services (Type III) was at the 0.01 level. As a result, H1a is accepted stating that gender
diversity in the commissioner board has a negative effect on financial distress. Conversely,
H1b and H1c are rejected.

4.2 Gender diversity within the business sectors in Indonesia

Gender diversity can be shown in corporate sectors in Indonesia. As found in this research, it
is described in the structure of corporate governance consisting of commissioners, directors
and audit committees. They are the boards of the organization involved in moving the
business line into financial and operational ownership. All three can be held by some people
with the composition of gender whether men as a whole or not (some women). In all business
sectors, companies having gender diversity in the structure are found to still be under 15%.
On the board of commissioners, the number of companies reached 13% indicating that there
are 59 companies whose executive positions are filled by men and women, while the
remaining 408 companies are filled by all men. Although the results are in the range of 10%,
 Gender
LogitDISTRESS 5 α þ β1GENDER_COMþ β2GENDER_DIRþ β3GENDER_AUDIT þ ε diversity and
Industry firm
type I II III IV
Coef Odds Coef Odds Coef Odds Coef Odds
performances
GENDER_ 2.693 0.067 1.135 0.321 3.070 0.046 1.315 0.268
COM 2.16** 1.88* 2.75*** 2.20** 101
GENDER_ 1.990 0.136 0.177 1.194 0.815 2.261 0.409 0.662
DIR 1.52 0.24 0.84 0.72
GENDER_ 0.492 1.050 0.978 0.275 0.583 0.558 0.341 1.407
AUDIT 0.14 0.84 0.53 0.48
Constant 1.297 3.660 0.045 0.955 0.618 1.856 0.225 0.798
2.79*** 0.22 2.41** 1.53
Log 22.914 18.959 81.778 79.047 58.771 49.982 152.560 148.86
likelihood
LR χ 2 7.91** 5.45 12.15*** 7.39*
Pseudo R2 0.172 0.03 0.10 0.10
Number of Obs 36 119 87 225
Note(s):
Industry Type I 5 Primary Sector
Industry Type II 5 Secondary Sector
Industry Type III 5 Tertiary Sector (Financial Services)
Industry Type IV 5 Tertiary Sector (Non-Financial Services)
***0.01, ***0.05, *0.10 Table 3.
Source(s): Authors own work Sensitivity analysis

this percentage is fairly higher than the percentage of the board of directors of 7% and the
audit committee by 5%. A commissioner is a position of ownership in the structure of
corporate governance because this position can be filled by the owner of capital in building
the company. The gender diversity of these capital owners was found to obtain a higher level
than in the composition of the director board and audit committee.
The responsibility of the capital ownership board is to select and oversee executives
(directors) and to take audit committees to carry out the supervision over corporate
governance. On the board of directors and audit committees, the number of companies in all
sectors is under 10% employing women. The directors are the executive of company taking
the responsibility for carrying out the company’s business activities operationally. In other
words, directors are the leaders of the company driving the business and making the report of
the performance to capital owners, while audit committees have the task to examine,
supervise and evaluate the business performance with the mandate of the board of
commissioners. These results statistically reveal that companies with women’s involvement
in working with men in the structure of the board of directors and audit committees are still
below 10% of 467 companies.

4.3 Effects of gender diversity on financial performance tendency

Prior studies have consistently provided a positive effect on improving the firm’s
performance (Charles et al., 2018; Dedunu and Anuradha, 2020; Fathonah, 2018; IFC, 2019;
Khlif and Achek, 2017). Companies employing women in the structure of the board of
directors can perform much better than those not employing women (L€ uckerath-Rovers,
2013). In this research, the model of previous studies was extended by identifying the
financial tendency of the company. The tendency emphasized is distress and non-distress.
JCMS The effects of diversity were tested on two types of the tendency. Based on the previous
7,1 description shown in Figure 3, performance has been found in 47% of firms suffering distress
and 53% of firms obtaining non-distress. Is there an effect of financial performance
employing women? The effect found in Table 3 shows the negative direction both gender
diversity in the structure of the board of commissioners, directors and audit committees, but
the level of significance accepted only on the board of commissioners which is significant at
the 0.01 level. Therefore, the independent variable of GENDER_COM is found to have a
102 significant negative effect on the company’s financial distress.
Gender diversity in the board of commissioners has a significant negative effect on
financial tendency in the condition of distress. This effect indicates that there are differences
between companies with gender diversity and without gender diversity in the board
structure of commissioners. They with the composition of women and men, in the position of
commissioner tend to experience less financial distress, while they, with all men without
women, have higher financial distress. The percentage of companies involving gender
diversity is 7% on the board of directors and 5% on the audit committees of 467 companies.
These values are very low below 10% allowing the effect to be insignificant on the financial
distress. Related to the result of the director board, the finding of this research doesn’t align
with Zhou (2019) implying that financial distress is significant when there is an inclusivity of
women on the board of directors.
The further reason is the difference in the function of the position of commissioner
board serving as one of the owners of capital or shareholder. What’s more, the increase of
independent boards is likely to improve operational oversight systems leading to better
corporate governances and can avoid financial distress as stated by the previous studies
(Kristanti et al., 2016; Widhiadnyana and Dwi Ratnadi, 2019). Besides, the board of
commissioners in the company has the right to determine the composition of the board of
directors and audit committees by looking at the competence in carrying out the business.
The inclusivity of attitudes given to women’s perspective combined with men’s
perspective encourages performance to be more stable and tends avoidable from
financial distress.
If this result is elaborated in the framework of the theory, social identity theory may
underline the significant effect of the commissioner board on financial distress. Identity as a
woman on the board of commissioners can form the pattern in making the decision. They
interact more with men in one activity together to achieve a common goal. The type of
interaction includes assurances, for instance, the assurance of the board of directors when
faced with an occurrence, they tend to obey the direction of the board of commissioners in
managing the operational activity of the firm. Corporate governance is a system designed to
direct the company to run well and become a guideline for the board of commissioners in
providing advice to the management. In sample firms, the chief commissioner tends to be the
principal, and along with the directors, they are responsible for the progress of the business.
For independent commissioners, although their position is not affiliated with controlling
shareholders, their independent status is more about protecting stakeholders. In conditions of
financial distress, independent commissioners increasingly serve as advisors to policies
taken by the board of directors. Women are considered able to function in providing advice
and their involvement only plays a role in improving the inclusivity of ideas in making the
decision, regardless of the proportion in each organizational structure. In other words, with
women, an ownership is quite possible for the company to gain a broader perspective in
achieving the goal. As a result, men and women on the board of commissioners can determine
the values of work and strategic behavior to make managerial decisions. Thus, the result of
this research discloses that only the commissioner’s board employing women is found to have
a significant effect in making better decisions during the company under the condition of
financial distress.
5. Conclusion Gender
The result of this research discloses that the number of companies in the overall business diversity and
sector employing women and men in the structure of the board of commissioners at 13%, the
board of director at 7% and the audit committee at 5%. This research further examines the
firm
effect of significance. The result of the test, a significant effect is only obtained in the gender performances
variable of the board of commissioners, with negative direction. In this case, the
commissioner as capital owner is a boardroom that feels the most financial distress. When
companies place gender diversity (women and men) in the composition of the commissioner 103
board, they tend to obtain lower financial distress.
The nexus between gender diversity and firm performance has been highlighted by
several latest studies (Endraswati, 2018; Fathonah, 2018; Gonz
alez et al., 2020; Marquez-
Cardenas et al., 2022; Mohammad et al., 2018), however gender diversity in the structure of
corporate governance on the financial performance tendency needs to be concluded and this
research finally makes inferences that firms employing women and men (gender diversity) in
the structure of corporate governance as the board of commissioners suffer from less
financial distress. As stated by the literature (Kristanti et al., 2016; Widhiadnyana and Dwi
Ratnadi, 2019), an independent board in corporate governance tends to improve operational
oversight. In addition, Hechvarria et al. (2017) reveal that women business leaders are more
likely to pay attention on social value. Thus, the finding of this study aligns with Abebe and
Dadanlar (2019) implying that the presence of women reduces the occurrence of business.
This study has managerial implications for corporate management as the decision-making.
Gender diversity can help firms obtain a broader perspective because of greater inclusivity of
ideas and diverse decisions so that companies can eventually find the solution when financial
conditions experience down. This research doesn’t assume that the representation of women’s
ownership shouldn’t be as same as men, but at least there is the involvement of women in
providing insight into business decision-making. This research should be complemented by the
study of women’s involvement from year to year in the business area because the position is
limited by time. It could be that the sample companies in this research change ownership
because there is a taking over the position. In addition, the research model emphasizes more on
gender measurement (nominal), while shifting organizational structures requires five years
allowing the nominal scale to be repeated each year resulting in the use of cross-section data in
this research and conducts the test for all types of industry. For further research, the model of
this research needs to add control variables and take into account other factors beyond gender
that may contribute to financial distress.

Note
1. Less 20% 5 very low, 21–40% 5 low, 41–60% 5 sufficient, 61–80% 5 high and 81–99% 5
very high

References
Abdullah, S.N. (2014), “The causes of gender diversity in Malaysian large firms”, Journal of
Management and Governance, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 1137-1159, doi: 10.1007/s10997-013-9279-0.
Abdullah, S.N. and Ismail, K.N.I.K. (2013), “Gender, ethnic and age diversity of the boards of large
Malaysian firms and performance”, Jurnal Pengurusan, Vol. 38, pp. 27-40.
Abebe, M. and Dadanlar, H. (2019), “From tokens to key players: the influence of board gender and
ethnic diversity on corporate discrimination lawsuits”, Human Relations, Vol. 74 No. 4, pp. 1-29,
doi: 10.1177/0018726719888801.
Alabede, J.O. (2016), “Effect of board diversity on corporate governance structure and operating
performance: evidence from the UK listed firms”, Asian Journal of Accounting and Governance,
Vol. 7, pp. 67-80, doi: 10.17576/ajag-2016-07-06.
JCMS Allison, L., Liu, Y., Murtinu, S. and Wei, Zuobao. (2023), “Gender and firm performance around the
world: the roles of finance, technology and labor”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 154,
7,1 113322, doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.113322.
Altman, E.I. (1968), “Financial ratios, discriminant analysis and the prediction of corporate
bankruptcy”, The Journal of Finance, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 589-609, doi: 10.1111/j.1540-6261.
1968.tb00843.x.
Altman, E.I. (2013), “Predicting financial distress of companies: revisiting the Z-Score and ZETA®
104 models”, Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Empirical Finance, Edward Elgar
Publishing, pp. 428-456.
Belcher, A. (2000), “Comparative corporate governance: the state of the art and emerging research”, in
Hoft, K.J., Kanda, H., Roe, M.J., Wymeersch, E. and Prigge, S. (Eds), International & Comparative
Law Quarterly, Oxford University Press, Oxford, Vol. 49, pp. 510-511.
Berger, P. and Luckmann, T. (1966), The Social Construction of Reality, Penguin Books, New York.
Billig, M., Abrams, D. and Hogg, M.A. (1991), “Social identity theory: constructive and critical
advances”, Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 20 No. 6, pp. 944-945, doi: 10.2307/2076221.
Cadbury, A. (2000), “The corporate governance agenda”, Corporate Governance: An International
Review. doi: 10.1111/1467-8683.00175.
Caesario, E.B. (2019), “Bei: kinerja emiten cukup positif sepanjang 2018”, available at: https://market.
bisnis.com/read/20190330/7/906155/bei-kinerja-emiten-cukup-positif-sepanjang-2018
Carter, D.A., D’Souza, F., Simkins, B.J. and Simpson, W.G. (2010), “The gender and ethnic diversity of
US boards and board committees and firm financial performance”, Corporate Governance:
An International Review, Vol. 18 No. 5, pp. 396-414, doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8683.2010.00809.x.
Charles, A., Dang, R. and Redor, E. (2018), “Board gender diversity and firm financial performance:
a quantile regression analysis”, Advances in Financial Economics, pp. 15-55, doi: 10.1108/S1569-
373220180000020002.
Daily, C.M., Dalton, D.R. and Cannella, A.A. (2003), “Corporate governance: decades of dialogue and
data”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 371-382, doi: 10.5465/AMR.2003.
10196703.
Davis, P.S., Babakus, E., Englis, P.D. and Pett, T. (2010), “The influence of CEO gender on market
orientation and performance in service small and medium-sized service businesses”, Journal
of Small Business Management, Vol. 48 No. 4, pp. 475-496, doi: 10.1111/j.1540-627X.2010.
00305.x.
Dedunu, H.H. and Anuradha, P. (2020), “Impact of board diversity on firm performance: evidence from
Sri Lanka”, International Journal of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurial Research,
Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 23-31, doi: 10.18510/ijmier.2020.614.
Desiyanti, O., Soedarmono, W., Chandra, K. and Kusnadi (2019), “The effect of financial ratios to
financial distress using altman Z-score method in real estate companies listed in Indonesia
stock exchange period”, Business and Entrepreneurial Review, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 119-136.
Dhir, A. (2015), Corporate Reporting under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Diversity
Disclosure Rule: A Mixed-Methods Content Analysis. Challenging Boardroom Homogeneity:
Corporate Law, Governance, and Diversity, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Endraswati, H. (2018), “Gender diversity in board of directors and firm performance: a study in
Indonesia Sharia banks”, Review of Integrative Business and Economics Research, Vol. 23 No. 2,
pp. 83-90.
Fathonah, A.N. (2018), “Pengaruh gender diversity dan age diversity terhadap kinerja keuangan the
effects of gender diversity and age diversity on financial performance”, Jurnal Riset Akuntansi
Dan Keuangan, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 373-380, doi: 10.17509/jrak.v4i3.4670.
Friedman, M. (1989), “Feminism and modern friendship: dislocating the community”, Ethics, Vol. 99
No. 2, pp. 275-290, doi: 10.1086/293066.
Glassner, B. and Tajfel, H. (1985), “Social identity and intergroup relations”, Contemporary Sociology, Gender
Vol. 14 No. 4, p. 520, doi: 10.2307/2069233.
diversity and
Gonz
alez, M., Guzm
an, A., Pablo, E. and Trujillo, M.A. (2020), “Does gender really matter in the
boardroom? Evidence from closely held family firms”, Review of Managerial Science, Vol. 14
firm
No. 1, pp. 221-267, doi: 10.1007/s11846-018-0292-1. performances
Gyapong, E., Monem, R.M. and Hu, F. (2016), “Do women and ethnic minority directors influence firm
value? Evidence from post-apartheid South Africa”, Journal of Business Finance and
Accounting. doi: 10.1111/jbfa.12175. 105
Hechvarria, D.M., Terjesen, S.A., Ingram, A.E., Renko, M., Justo, R. and Elam, A. (2017), “Taking core
of business: the impact of culture and gender on entrepreneurs’ blended value creation goals”,
Small Business Economics, Vol. 48 No. 1, pp. 225-257, doi: 10.1007/s11187-016-9747-4.
Hillman, A.J. (2005), “Politicians on the board of directors: do connections affect the bottom line?”,
Journal of Management, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 464-481, doi: 10.1177/0149206304272187.
Ibrahim, J.T. (2003), Sosiologi Pedesaan, UMM Press, Malang.
IFC (2019), “Board gender diversity in ASEAN”, Board Gender Diversity in ASEAN, doi: 10.
1596/32408.
Khanchel, I. (2007), “Corporate governance: measurement and determinant analysis”, Managerial
Auditing Journal. doi: 10.1108/02686900710819625.
Khlif, H. and Achek, I. (2017), “Gender in accounting research: a review”, Managerial Auditing Journal,
Vol. 32 No. 6, pp. 627-655, doi: 10.1108/MAJ-02-2016-1319.
Krishnan, H.A. and Park, D. (2005), “A few good women - on top management teams”, Journal of
Business Research, Vol. 58 No. 12, pp. 1712-1720, doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2004.09.003.
Kristanti, F.T., Rahayu, S. and Huda, A.N. (2016), “The determinant of financial distress on Indonesian
family firm”, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 219, pp. 440-447, doi: 10.1016/j.
sbspro.2016.05.018.
Kuzey, C., Fritz, M.M.C., Uyar, A. and Karaman, A.S. (2022), “Board gender diversity, CSR strategy,
and eco-friendly initiatives in the transportation and logistics sector”, International Journal of
Production Economics, Vol. 247, 108436, doi: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2022.108436.
Loukil, N., Yousfi, O. and Yerbanga, R. (2019), “Does gender diversity on boards influence stock
market liquidity? Empirical evidence from the French market”, Corporate Governance (Bingley),
Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 669-703, doi: 10.1108/CG-09-2018-0291.
uckerath-Rovers, M. (2013), “Women on boards and firm performance”, Journal of Management and
L€
Governance, Vol. 17, pp. 491-509, doi: 10.1007/s10997-011-9186-1.
Marquez-Cardenas, V., Gonzalez-Ruiz, J.D. and Duque-Grisales, E. (2022), “Board gender diversity and
firm performance: evidence from Latin America”, Journal of Sustainable Finance and
Investment, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 785-808, doi: 10.1080/20430795.2021.2017256.
Moghadam, V.M. (1992), “Patriarchy and the politics of gender in modernising societies: iran, Pakistan
and Afghanistan”, International Sociology, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 35-53, doi: 10.1177/
026858092007001002.
Mohammad, S.J., Abdullatif, M. and Zakzouk, F. (2018), “The effect of gender diversity on the financial
performance of Jordanian banks”, Academy of Accounting and Financial Studies Journal, Vol. 22
No. 2, pp. 1-11.
Morris, M.G., Venkatesh, V. and Ackerman, P.L. (2005), “Gender and age differences in employee
decisions about new technology: an extension to the theory of planned behavior”, IEEE
Transactions on Engineering Management, Vol. 52 No. 1, pp. 69-84, doi: 10.1109/TEM.2004.
839967.
Naeem, M.A., Karim, S., Nor, S.M. and Ismail, R. (2022), “Sustainable corporate governance and gender
diversity on corporate boards: evidence from COVID-19”, Economic Research-Ekonomska
Istrazivanja, Vol. 35 No. 1, pp. 5824-5842, doi: 10.1080/1331677X.2022.2038649.
JCMS Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2012), “Emotion regulation and psychopathology: the role of gender”, Annual
Review of Clinical Psychology, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 161-187, doi: 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032511-
7,1 143109.
Olengga, P. and Fauzi, F. (2020), “Analisis potensi finansial distress pada industri semen terdaftar di
Bursa efek Indonesia”, Jurnal Ilmiah Bina Manajemen, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 47-57, doi: 10.33557/
jibm.v3i1.828.
Østergaard, C.R., Timmermans, B. and Kristinsson, K. (2011), “Does a different view create something
106 new? The effect of employee diversity on innovation”, Research Policy, Vol. 40 No. 3,
pp. 500-509, doi: 10.1016/j.respol.2010.11.004.
Pekerti, V.S. and Yovita, L. (2019), “Aplikasi model altman Z”-Score pada perusahaan-perusahaan
agrikultur di Bursa efek Indonesia”, Jurnal Penelitan Ekonomi Dan Bisnis, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 1-8,
doi: 10.33633/jpeb.v4i1.2319.
Primasari, N.S. (2018), “Analisis Altman Z-Score, Grover Score, Springate, dan Zmijewski Sebagai
Signaling Financial Distress (Studi Empiris Industri Barang-Barang Konsumsi di
Indonesia)”, Accounting and Management Journal, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 23-43, doi: 10.33086/
amj.v1i1.70.
Qian, M. (2016), “Women’s leadership and corporate performance”, SSRN Electronic Journal. doi: 10.
2139/ssrn.2737833.
Ramadhani, Z.I. and Adhariani, D. (2017), “Semakin beragam semakin baik? Isu keberagaman gender,
keuangan, dan investasi perusahaan”, Jurnal Keuangan Dan Perbankan, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 1-13,
doi: 10.26905/jkdp.v21i1.1222.
Reguera-Alvarado, N., de Fuentes, P. and Laffarga, J. (2017), “Does board gender diversity influence
financial performance? Evidence from Spain”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 141, pp. 337-350,
doi: 10.1007/s10551-015-2735-9.
Ruisah, R. (2018), “Perbedaan gender pada respon fungsi emosional terhadap tokoh antagonis: sebuah
studi pada mahasiswa sastra inggris”, SEKRETARI, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 1-10, doi: 10.32493/skr.
v5i1.1104.
Singh, V. and Vinnicombe, S. (2004), “Why so few women directors in top UK boardrooms? Evidence
and theoretical explanations”, Corporate Governance: An International Review, Vol. 12 No. 4,
pp. 479-488, doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8683.2004.00388.x.
Stoet, G., O’Connor, D.B., Conner, M. and Laws, K.R. (2013), “Are women better than men at multi-
tasking?”, BMC Psychology, Vol. 1 No. 18, pp. 1-18, doi: 10.1186/2050-7283-1-18.
Tajfel, H. (1974), “Social identity and intergroup behaviour”, Social Science Information, Vol. 13 No. 2,
pp. 65-93, doi: 10.1177/053901847401300204.
Tajfel, H. and Turner, J.C. (2004), “The social identity theory of intergroup behavior”, Political
Psychology, Psychology Press, pp. 276-293, doi: 10.4324/9780203505984-16.
Tamres, L.K., Janicki, D. and Helgeson, V.S. (2002), “Sex differences in coping behavior: a meta-
analytic review and an examination of relative coping”, Personality and Social Psychology
Review, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 2-30, doi: 10.1207/S15327957PSPR0601_1.
Terjesen, S., Sealy, R. and Singh, V. (2009), “Women diDectors on corporate boards: a review and
research agenda”, Corporate Governance: An International Review, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 320-337,
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8683.2009.00742.x.
Thanh Tu, T.T., Huu Loi, H. and Hoang Yen, T.T. (2015), “Relationship between gender diversity on
boards and firm’s performance - case study about ASEAN banking sector”, International
Journal of Financial Research, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 150-159, doi: 10.5430/ijfr.v6n2p150.
Tualeka, M.W.N. (2017), “Teori konflik sosiologi klasik dan modern”, Al-Hikmah: Jurnal Studi Agama-
Agama, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 33-48, doi: 10.30651/ah.v3i1.409.
Werder, A.V. (2011), “Corporate governance and stakeholder opportunism”, Organization Science,
Vol. 22 No. 5, pp. 1345-1358, doi: 10.1287/orsc.1100.0599.
Widhiadnyana, I.K. and Dwi Ratnadi, N.M. (2019), “The impact of managerial ownership, institutional Gender
ownership, proportion of independent commissioner, and intellectual capital on financial
distress”, Journal of Economics, Business and Accountancy Ventura, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 351-360, diversity and
doi: 10.14414/jebav.v21i3.1233. firm
Willows, G. and Van Der Linde, M. (2016), “Women representation on boards: a South African performances
perspective”, Meditari Accountancy Research, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 211-225, doi: 10.1108/MEDAR-
01-2016-0001.
Zhou, G. (2019), “Financial distress prevention in China: does gender of board of directors matter?”, 107
Journal of Applied Finance and Banking, Vol. 9 No. 6, pp. 1-8.

Further reading
Elia, J., Toros, E., Sawaya, C. and Balouza, M. (2021), “‘Using Altman Z’-score to predict financial
distress: evidence from Lebanese Alpha Banks”, Management Studies and Economic Systems,
Vol. 6 Nos 1/2, pp. 47-57.
Singh, V., Terjesen, S. and Vinnicombe, S. (2008), “Newly appointed directors in the boardroom: How
do women and men differ?”, European Management Journal, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 48-58, doi: 10.
1016/j.emj.2007.10.002.

Corresponding author
Ahmad Abbas can be contacted at: [email protected]

For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:
www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm
Or contact us for further details: [email protected]