Critical Evaluation of the Leadership Gender Diversity as a Driver of ESG Disclosure: Case Study of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Listed Companies

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-906-3_21How to use a DOI?

Keywords

ESG; Gender Diversity; Africa; Governance; ESG GPS

Abstract

This study aims to develop a deeper understanding of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) matters in Africa, gender diversity in corporate leadership and its impact on ESG matters. It examines the relationship between gender diversity in corporate leadership and ESG disclosure in South Africa, using the JSE-listed companies’ board gender compositions and companies’ ESG ratings. Grounded in stakeholder, legitimacy, signalling, gender socialisation, critical mass, and token theories, this study analyses ratings and gender composition data of JSE-listed companies for four years (1999-2022), using unique homogeneous data and AI-powered Risk Insights’s ESG GPS® ratings. It explores the relationship between the ESG disclosure reflected in ESG GPS ratings and level of the women presence on corporate boards (percentage of women, absolute number of women, combination of both), controlling for company market capitalisation and board size effects. The findings indicate that women presence on the board has positive meaningful correlation of different strength and significance with overall ESG disclosure / ESG GPS® ratings. The study contributes to the growing literature on corporate governance and sustainable finance in the Global South countries, highlighting gender diversity in corporate leadership as a driver of ESG matters, sending message to regulators, institutional investors, corporate leaders and other stakeholders aiming to promoting inclusive governance.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Andrey Bogdanov
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/12
TI  - Critical Evaluation of the Leadership Gender Diversity as a Driver of ESG Disclosure: Case Study of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Listed Companies
BT  - Proceedings of Botho University International Research Conference (BUIRC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 348
EP  - 360
SN  - 3005-155X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-906-3_21
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-906-3_21
ID  - Bogdanov2025
ER  -