An empirical evidence on the effect of women board representation on firm performance of companies listed in Iraq Stock Exchange

The Iraqi stock price index performance has been on the decline which indicates a deteriorating performance of the listed companies which is mostly associated with weak corporate governance practices. Despite that fact that Iraq has gone very far in the liberalization of women, Iraqi board of directors is still dominated by men. However, gender diversity is one of the largest concepts of board diversity and a major issue within corporate governance where several studies seek to discover the influence of diversity on firm performance. Considering the inconsistencies in the results of previous studies concerning gender diversity and firm performance relationship, this lack of consensus permit for further research as it is important to investigate the factors in board processes that are crucial to board effectiveness. This article aims at examining the effect of women representation on firm performance of Iraqi listed firms using panel regression analysis. The empirical results of this paper provide evidence of a positive and significant relationship between female directors and firm performance as measured by Return on Assets while no relationship with Tobin’s q. The important policy implication of this finding is that the Iraqi Stock Exchange and Iraqi Security Commission should incorporate gender diversity in corporate governance practices and encourage women directorship in Iraq. Finally, this study provided some suggestions for future researchers.