Pursuing 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda Through Gender Equality: Synergies of Gender Diversity and Financial Performance in Brazilian Publicly Traded Companies

Women represent only 17% of total seats in organizations’ boardrooms. This scenario can be even worse when analyzing countries individually, such as Brazil, where Boards of Directors (BDs) have only 8.6% female members. The negative implications of this scenario are largely known and go from less innovation and creativity to worse decision-making processes, consequently impacting corporate financial performance and value generation. This paper investigates whether gender diversity in Boards of Directors and the labor force of Brazilian publicly traded companies impacts their financial performance. A quantitative analysis comprised five years of data of 86 publicly traded companies in the Brazilian Stock Exchange (B3), performed multiple linear regressions, and nonparametric Mann–Whitney hypothesis tests. Tobin's Q was used as a measure of company value, as well as diversity proxies and financial performance variables to determine the female influence on organizational performance. Finally, findings revealed a positive and significant relationship between financial performance and gender diversity variables, raising attention to the urgency of gender diversity in BDs as a significant variable impacting value generation to shareholders. This study also fosters the understanding of how companies could contribute to the 2030 sustainable agenda, revealing potential synergies between gender diversity and financial performance.