Prof. Karen Schnatterly (Virginia Tech)
Date: Monday, December 12th
Time: 05:00pm - 06:30pm
Location: room W401 at Professor-Huber-Platz 02, Lehrturm
Title: How Female Directors Impact Gender Litigation Likelihood and Outcomes
Abstract: Gender discrimination in firms is an ongoing problem, yet we know little about how gender diversity in leadership, particularly within boards, affects stakeholder perceptions of the firm. Boards are an important and visible component of the organization’s leadership and are ideally positioned to influence firm policies and attitudes, setting the tone for the organization’s activities. The influence the board may differ by stakeholder type: internal or external. Specifically, internal and external stakeholders may view and create expectations differently given their position relative to the board. Consequently, these different views may produce different stakeholder reactions when gender discrimination, and subsequent litigation, occurs. Using a dataset of gender discrimination lawsuits and experiments simulating jury decision making, we hypothesize that internal and external stakeholder perceptions will differ with regard to how gender diverse boards impact gender discrimination litigation. Indeed, we find that firms with more female directors are at a higher likelihood of incurring gender discrimination litigation yet receive more favorable litigation outcomes including a greater likelihood of receiving favorable verdicts and of paying lower damages.