Do Investors Value Workforce Gender Diversity?

David P. Daniels (), Jennifer E. Dannals (), Thomas Z. Lys () and Margaret A. Neale ()
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David P. Daniels: NUS Business School, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119245, Singapore
Jennifer E. Dannals: Yale School of Management, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511
Thomas Z. Lys: Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208
Margaret A. Neale: Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94301

Organization Science, 2025, vol. 36, issue 1, 313-339

Abstract: We examine whether investors value workforce gender diversity. Consistent with the view that investors believe workforce gender diversity can be valuable in major firms, we use event studies to demonstrate that U.S. technology firms and financial firms experience more positive stock price reactions when it is revealed that they have relatively higher (versus lower) workforce gender diversity numbers. For instance, we find that Google’s revelation of relatively low workforce gender diversity numbers triggered a negative stock price reaction, whereas eBay’s revelation of relatively high workforce gender diversity numbers triggered a positive stock price reaction. These stock price reactions are both economically and statistically significant; for example, we estimate that if a technology firm had revealed gender diversity numbers that were one standard deviation higher, its market valuation would have increased by $1.11 billion. Corroborating this plausibly causal field evidence, we also find positive investor reactions to workforce gender diversity in randomized experiments using Prolific participants with investing experience; these reactions seem to be underpinned by investors’ beliefs about potential upsides of diversity for the firm (e.g., reduced legal risks; increased creativity) but not by investors’ beliefs about potential downsides of diversity for the firm (e.g., increased conflict). Our findings highlight the importance of understanding investors’ intuitions or beliefs about major organizational phenomena such as workforce gender diversity. Our results also point toward a new type of business case for diversity, driven by investors: if major firms had more workforce gender diversity, investors may “reward” them with substantially higher valuations.

Keywords: diversity; gender diversity; investors; stock market; organizational behavior; decision making; psychological processes; research design and methods; archival research; extant data; event study; financial event study; laboratory research; experimental designs; strategy and policy; field research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:36:y:2025:i:1:p:313-339

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