Abstract:
This study focuses on gender diversity and investigates to what extent women on the board
influence the financial performance of the capital goods companies listed in CSE. The
Independent variable of the study is women on board, while the dependent variable is the
company's financial performance. Hence this study considers board diversity, women executive
directors and independent non-executive directors to measure women on board and, at the same
time to measure the company's financial performance, return on equity and return on assets are
considered. The control variables are leverage and firm size. Secondary data from 2015 to 2020
were collected from the annual report of 20 companies. Traditionally accepted methods, namely
descriptive statistics, unit root test, correlation analysis and regression analysis, were employed
for descriptive research designs. The study reveals that board diversity, women independent non executive directors and leverage have a significant negative impact on ROA while board
diversity has a significant negative impact on ROE. Furthermore, it proves that Sri Lankan
women are typically still engaging more with family responsibilities than men. Thus, they
usually don’t care about being involved in the corporate ladder and representing themselves on
board the company. Therefore, this study recommends providing sufficient training through
seminars, workshops, forums, and on-the-job training to enhance women's knowledge and
leadership skills for making decisions to enhance the firm's financial performance.
