Gender Representation and Females’ Performance: The Role of Discretion Between Stakeholders

Abstract The representative bureaucracy theory highlights the role of demographic characteristics in improving the benefits of the interests of clients who share similar values and experiences. Using data of 4-year universities and qualitative interviews in Korea, this study investigates how gender representation of stakeholder groups influences the multiple dimensions of females’ performances and whether the variations of discretion for stakeholders matter. The findings of this study demonstrate that increasing female board members, faculty, and staff is positively associated with female students’ graduation outcomes. However, having more female students is negatively associated with female faculty’s research outcomes. Moreover, the impacts of discretion between stakeholder groups and within faculty group matter for female students’ outcomes.