Companies with women in power ‘less likely to break environmental laws’

COMPANIES with women at the helm are less likely to break environmental laws.

A new study claims that for every additional woman appointed to a corporate board, the company experiences an average 1.5% reduction in ‘litigation risk’ – or a breaking of environmental laws.

The study’s author Chelsea Liu put this down to the fact men and women tend to have ‘different ethical standards’.

She said: “Male directors are stereotypically power-oriented, whereas female directors show greater universalistic concerns for other people. Female voices in the boardroom could therefore conceivably help companies to keep the welfare of local communities in mind when making environmental decisions.”

The study, which was published in the Journal of Corporate Finance, analysed 1,893 environmental lawsuits filed against companies.