Women on Board: Female Board Membership as a Form of Elite Democratization
Eelke Heemskerk & Meindert Fennema, in Enterprise and Society
Eelke Heemskerk en Meindert Fennema consider female presence in corporate boards a sign of the democratization of elite social networks. Building on a case study of the Netherlands that covers the last four decades, they show that the corporate elite has become more open to nonmembers of traditional elites.
The feminization of the corporate elite was in the beginning—that is in the 1970s—initiated by the state but was subsequently pushed forward by the internationalization of corporate governance. Elites open up their ranks and privileged positions to women, but they do so reluctantly and under outside pressure.
Publication details
Enterprise Soc (2014) / doi: 10.1093/es/kht136 / First published online: January 24, 2014