Jobs for the Boys? Exploring gender biased director's selection

- A novel strategy to test for gender bias in boards based on changes after M&As.
- We isolate demand factors from supply ones for women's underrepresentation on boards.
- There is a gender gap when controlling for firm/deal, and personal features.
- Women are 1/3-2/3 less likely than men to be added to the new board.

We use mergers and acquisitions to isolate demand from supply-side factors on board nominations. This event study allows considering target directors as appointed and discarded candidates to the merged board. Our results show empirical evidence consistent with bias against women.