Do women directors enhance the performance of Bangladeshi firms?

The paper aims to scrutinise the linkage between female directors and financial performance. To achieve this, we conducted ordinary least squares regression analysis using data from 50 registered financial firms on the Dhaka Stock Exchange for the period 2016–2021, highlighting the impact of board gender diversity on performance. The results demonstrated that board gender diversity has a significant positive influence on firm performance. This study uniquely examines how female presence on the board stimulates performance, utilising various measures of female gender diversity and linking both accounting and market measures of performance in listed financial firms in Bangladesh. The findings of this study may encourage market regulators, the investors, and policymakers to implement and promote female participation in corporate boardrooms and suggest setting quotas to enhance performance.