Graduation Year

2020

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Organizational Studies

Second Department

Economics

Reader 1

Jeffrey Lewis

Reader 2

Roberto Pedace

Rights Information

© 2020 Kimberly M. Kaneshina

Abstract

On September 30, 2018, California Senate Bill 826 (CA SB 826) was passed. This Bill requires a quota for women to serve on California headquartered and public corporate boards. This study focuses on California tech firms, which I define as firms that are reliant on technology to create their main product or platform; but, are not aerospace or telecommunication firms. My thesis is a two-part analysis: exploring employees’, who worked at companies that were impacted by this Bill, perspectives, as well as, discovering if there is a relationship between percentage of female directors and stock price performance. Most employees were familiar with the Bill and believed that their companies would comply with it. Yet, they did not believe the fine was an incentivizing factor and agreed that a Bill focusing on Chief Suites (C-Suites) could be more effective in increasing company gender-diversity (Interview Hypotheses 1, 3, 4). Additionally, there were no statistically significant relationships and weak correlations between female directors and stock prices. There were also no statistically significant relationships between percentage change of female directors and percentage change of stock prices (Empirical Analysis Hypotheses 1, 2, 3, 4; Dataset 2, 3, 4). Ultimately, my research implies that while California tech companies are likely to comply with the Bill, adding more women onto boards will not have an impact on market performance on California tech firms. This research gives insight into the results other states might have through implementing similar laws. It can also advise them to refine their legislation to align with international policies and recommend that they consider enacting a similar Bill focusing on C-Suite gender diversity.

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