Women on board of directors (WOBD) should contribute to a
sustainable strategic management with regard to the increased stakeholder
demand on social and environmental issues. This literature review evaluates
200 empirical research studies on the impact of WOBD on corporate
governance quality and firm performance. We briefly introduce the theoretical
and empirical WOBD framework. This is followed by a discussion of WOBD
effectiveness which aims to enhance corporate governance quality, and is
divided into the following areas: 1) financial reporting; 2) corporate social
responsibility (CSR) reporting; 3) audit; 4) corporate philanthropy. We will
then evaluate the impact of WOBD on; 5) financial performance; 6) CSR
performance. Furthermore, we will summarise the key findings in each area,
and provide a description of the analysed proxies for corporate governance
quality and firm performance. Finally, we will discuss the limitations of the
studies and give useful recommendations for future empirical research
activities in this topic.