Female Directors & the Stigma of ‘Incompetence’: I am on boards coz I’m a woman; So what?

This paper addresses a significant research gap on female directors’ respond to the stigma of incompetence, hurled at them because of diversity initiatives which is improving their representation on boards. Social cognition theory argues that an individual’s response to social threats varies with the duration of their social adjustment period. Based on 27 elite-interviews with female directors and thematic analysis of data, study finds that in addition to social adjustment of female directors to the stigma of incompetence their response is also influenced by the board roles they perform. Those with longer social adjustment period and more communal/collective role-responsibilities such as Chair and CEOs respond to the threat with humour and empathy. Female directors with shorter social adjustment to the social threat and without collective board responsibility resort to the stigma of incompetence with nonchalance and justification. The study contributes innovatively and significantly to literature on board diversity which presently is limiting in its focus on the impact of gender diversity on corporate performance and expands the discourse to the sociopsychological impact on board actors. The findings also recommend that corporate practitioners and policymakers can address the issue of stigma by making the diversity discourse more inclusive.