Women on board: Female board membership as a form of elite democratization
Corporate elites have been all-male bastions until the twenty-first century. The recent inclusion of women in the corporate elite needs explanation because it is an abrupt change in recruitment practices.
We consider female presence in corporate boards as a sign of the democratization of elite social networks. Building on a case study of the Netherlands that covers the last four decades, we show that the corporate elite has become more open to nonmembers of traditional elites. In the process, women have also entered the boardroom. Elites open up their ranks and privileged positions to women, but they do so reluctantly and under outside pressure.
Publication details
Heemskerk, Eelke M., Fennema, M. (2014). 'Women on board: Female board membership as a form of elite democratization'. in Enterprise and Society 15 (2): 252-284.