There is no significant correlation between the number of women on corporate boards and financial performance

Letter to WSJ.

"you note that in its SEC filing the Nasdaq cites that “multiple studies” show that increasing the number of women on corporate boards improves financial performance. These claims tend not to be based on rigorous analyses.

These findings have recently been codified in three major meta-analyses of hundreds of rigorous academic studies. The most recent meta-analysis examined the results of 40 academic studies, and “no significant correlation [was] found.” Another integration of 140 scholarly articles concluded that female representation on boards is “neither wholly detrimental nor wholly beneficial to firm financial performance.” A 2015 study analyzed 20 rigorously selected peer-reviewed articles, and found that “a higher representation of females on corporate boards is neither related to an increase, nor to a decrease in firm financial performance . . . these results do not support the business case for diversity.” (Notably, seven of the nine academic researchers cited in this paragraph are female.)

Advocates of quotas for women on boards—not only from Nasdaq, but also those from the state of California—should be called upon to demonstrate the financial associations that they assert. None appear to be based on rigorous academic study.

Prof. Lori Verstegen Ryan

San Diego State University"