From the Board Room to the Top

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to test whether there is a positive relationship between the share of female board directors and the share of women in the top executive management group within the same companies. In 2006, the Norwegian government passed a law that required all Public Limited Companies to have at least 40 percent women present on their boards. The companies were given a transitional period of a couple of years to conform, but by 2008 all the firms had to fulfill the requirements of the law. Our hypothesis is that the law could create spillover effects to the top executive management group of firms by making women in positions of power more visible, and in turn, desirable. Our results show that there is a positive relationship between our variables. It is evident that the firms with a high percentage of female board directors in 2004 have a significantly higher proportion of female top executive managers in 2010, compared to those firms with few female board directors in 2004