National Culture and Women Managers: Evidence From Microfinance Institutions Around the World

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Business and Society

Publication Date

1-1-2019

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2019. We investigate the effect of national culture on women manager appointments. We argue that culture influences women manager appointments through their effects on managerial decision-making. Using firm-level data on 2,456 microfinance institutions (MFIs) across 61 countries, we document that fewer women managers are appointed in societies high on individualism and uncertainty avoidance. On the contrary, high power distance societies are positively associated with the appointment of women managers. We demonstrate that a greater number of women nonmanagers reduces (increases) the appointment of women managers in high individualistic (uncertainty avoidance) cultures. Our findings challenge the “one-size-fit-all” approach adopted by policy makers around the world to increase women manager appointments. Our results are robust to endogeneity.

ISSN

0007-6503

Publisher

SAGE Publications Ltd

First Page

765000000000

Disciplines

Business

Keywords

microfinance institutions, national culture, women managers

Scopus ID

85073984114

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

yes

Open Access Type

Green: A manuscript of this publication is openly available in a repository

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