Gender discrimination before mandated quotas? Evidence from Norway: 1989–2002

•I introduce a new discrimination methodology based on persistence in practice.•The autocorrelation should be close to unity if discrimination is persistent.•Persistence is measured in female board representation in Norway 1989–2002.•Managerial power variables (tenure, other directorships, and inside ownership) complement the lagged female director fraction.•The persistence in the female director fraction is low, indicating no discrimination.•The relationship between powerful insiders and the female director fraction is weak.

Is the low percentage of women on boards due to discrimination? Discrimination has a time dimension; it is repeated period after period and is thus highly persistent. This persistence is tested with data from Norway before quota regulations were instituted in 2003. The data consist of an unbalanced panel sample of all non-financial listed companies from 1989 to 2002. Persistence implies a serial correlation close to one. The main finding is low persistence, implying no discrimination in the sample period. The lack of significant estimates for managerial power supports the persistence result. The main result is also robust to varying the definition of female representation.