Female executive leadership and corporate social responsibility

Abstract We examine how increased female participation in top executive leadership affects corporate social responsibility (CSR). Applying a long‐window, event study approach with matching, we first document that CSR ratings improve with increased female participation in the top executive team, consistent with expectations based on previous research. Then, we examine specific ways that female participation impacts CSR decision‐making. We predict and find that increased female participation brings more attention to remediating CSR concerns. We also predict and find that, in the uncertain economic times following the global financial crisis, increased female participation moderated addition of new CSR strengths.