Board gender diversity and financial performance a survey in selected organizations from Masaka municipality

Abstract

There is much debate amongst academics regarding the contribution of women on corporate boards, particularly, the effect on financial performance. Though there have been serious efforts to ensure that even private organizations adhere to the Gender Equality Seal Certification programme, there is still a glass ceiling for women on boards. The main purpose of the study was to find out the relationship between board gender diversity and financial performance in Masaka Municipality. The study examined the biggest two insurance companies in Uganda, that is Statewide Insurance Company (SWICO) and National Insurance Corporation (NIC) on issues regarding the topic. For the study, secondary data was extracted from the published financial statement of the selected companies while primary data was collected with the use of questionnaire from the 44 respondents drawn from the selected the 2 insurance companies. Data analysis was performed using SPSS in form of mean, standard deviation and coefficient analysis. Findings indicate that gender diversity on boards has a positive relationship with financial performance. NIC that had 33.3% representation of women on the board was found excelling in terms of ROE, ROA and Sales Growth than SWICO which had no women on board. In addition to the empirical findings supporting board gender diversity, I also emphasize that an economic objective should not be the only reason for increasing women representation on boards. Keywords: Financial Performance, Boards Gender Diversity, Board Composition, Board of Directors, Female Representation ROE, ROA and Sales Growth.