Corporate Benefits of Gender Diversity a Myth

Article here. There has been a determined push by Feminist Advocacy groups in the UK and America to claim that research supports the theory that better gender and racial diversity on Corporate Boards improves decision-making and hence financial performance. Unfortunately - as explained by Prof. Alice Eagly, Professor of Psychology and Professor of Management and Organizations at Northwestern University - that is not supported by research. Excerpt:

'You’d be forgiven for assuming a quick and sure way to multiply profits and amplify organizational success is to increase the gender and racial diversity of any group. According to claims in the mainstream media, the effects of gender and racial diversity are universally favorable. News stories tend to mirror this 2014 Washington Post article’s claim that “researchers have long found ties between having women on a company’s board of directorsand better financial performance.”

And as Nicholas Kristoff wrote in The New York Times in 2013:

Scholarly research suggests that the best problem-solving doesn’t come from a group of the best individual problem-solvers, but from a diverse team whose members complement each other. That’s an argument for leadership that is varied in every way — in gender, race, economic background and ideology.

The truth is there’s actually no adequate scientific basis for these newsworthy assertions. And this lack of scientific evidence to guide such statements illustrates the troubled relations of science to advocacy and policy, that I have analyzed in an article in the current Journal of Social Issues.'