The Role of Rookie Female Directors in a Post‐Quota Period: Gender Inequalities within French Boards

Abstract

The board‐level gender quota enacted in France has induced the massive arrival in corporate boards of a new population—namely, women with no prior board experience. We examine the positions and the compensation of these “rookie female directors.” We show that, conditional on their individual characteristics and firm effects, rookie female directors have had a limited access to the key positions within boards and have suffered from a significant compensation gap. We interpret this evidence of positional segregation as resulting from gender stereotypes that have persisted in the process of rookie female directors’ integration within boards.