Females in top management and perceived obstacles by Indian firms—Does economic freedom help?

Abstract We explore the interactive effect of economic freedom and perceived obstacles (corruption, crime, and political instability) on the probability of having females as top managers using Indian firm level data. Our analysis shows that when economic freedom is lower, higher levels of these perceived obstacles correspond to a lower probability of having a female top manager. However, this negative effect is eliminated at higher levels of economic freedom. In some cases, at higher levels of economic freedom, we observe a significantly positive marginal effect of an increase in perceived obstacles on the probability of having a female top manager.