Are Female Independent Directors Less Likely To Veto?

Independent directors,who have the "special identities" in the board of directors,are playing important roles in improving corporate governance of contemporary corporations,with the perspectives of independence and profession.Participation in the voting of corporate events is the main way for them to perform their functions.And the final voting results are not only related to the board motions,but also to the personal characteristics of independent directors,such as the gender.With the opening of ideological trend,women's leadership is increasingly in fields of world,with their own characteristics.More and more women are entering the board of listed companies to participate in corporate decision-making.Then,when female independent directors participate in events decision-making,are there some female preferences?What will the effect of the independent directors of the individual on the voting results of the entire team of independent directors?And how will the female independent directors affect the voting results of the entire team?They both are the topics of this paper.This paper is based on combing the relevant literature of independent directors and female directors to explore the impact of female independent directors on voting behavior from the theory of psychology,management and economics.In the empirical study,this paper chooses the data of China's listed A-share listed companies,from 2005 to 2015.The two samples of individual directors and company are selected,and then this paper test the status quo and the relationship between female independent directors and voting results.In addition,taking into account the special characteristics of independent directors and China's national conditions,this paper also do the classificational test by corporate natures and violations.There are four main conclusions of this paper.Firstly,the proportion of women in independent directors in China's listed A-share listed companies is low and is different between different industries and different nature of companies.But the the overall trend is increasing.Secondly,different with traditional perspectives,the empirical results show that female independent directors themselves have no voting preferences.While the group with female independent directors is less likely to veto.Thirdly,compared to legal companies,there are more veto views in violational companies with female independent directors Fourthly,compared to state-owned companies,there are more veto views in violational and non-state-owned companies with female independent directors,both in the level of independent directors and companies.This paper discusses the impact of female independent directors on voting behavior.And this discuss not only enriches the study of the voting behavior of independent directors,but also provides some reference for the performance of the independent directors and the development of gender balance in China's listed companies.