Sexism, Culture, and Firm Value: Evidence from the Harvey Weinstein Scandal and the #MeToo Movement

Sexism, Culture, and Firm Value: Evidence from the Harvey Weinstein Scandal and the #MeToo Movement

Karl Lins, Lukas Roth, Henri Servaes, Ane Tamayo

Series number :

Serial Number: 
679/2020

Date posted :

May 07 2020

Last revised :

August 31 2021
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Keywords

  • Sexism • 
  • culture • 
  • female leadership • 
  • firm value

During the Harvey Weinstein and #MeToo events, firms with a non-sexist corporate culture, proxied by having women among the five highest paid executives, earn excess returns of 1.6%.

Returns for firms with female executives are substantially higher in industries with few women in executive positions, and for firms headquartered in states with a high level of sexism or gender pay gap. Firms in industries with many female executives or headquartered in less sexist states also earn positive abnormal returns, irrespective of whether they have female leaders themselves. Firms without female top executives exhibit improvements in gender diversity after the Weinstein/#MeToo events. Our evidence attests to the value of having a non-sexist culture.

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Authors

Professor
Real name:
Karl Lins
University of Utah
Real name:
Ane Tamayo