Date of Publication :16th December 2022

Abstract: This study addressed corporate governance specific to board gender diversity, revealing a relationship between percentage change of female boards of director membership and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) score existed. Despite literature on the topic, no study had quantified the effect of ESG as a measure of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The study sought to fill this gap in the literature. This non-experimental quantitative correlational study examined the relationship between changing female board of director membership and ESG score. The research question asked, “To what extent is there a relationship between percentage change of female board of director membership and ESG scores as a measure of CSR influenced by firm size between 2014 and 2019?” Five hundred fifty-six U.S. firms participated in the study due to their reporting of data for each year in the study within the Thomson Reuters Eikon database with market capitalization serving as the proxy for measuring firm size. The research was designed to discover if a relationship existed and whether the relationship was statistically significant. Linear regression analysis and descriptive statistics were utilized in the study results. Data were analyzed using regression at p <.05 for statistical significance. The results found there were statistically significant positive relationships between percentage change of female boards of director membership and ESG score as well as large firms experienced a greater predictor value than small firms.

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