Gender Diversity in Audit Committees from an Environmental, Social and Governance Perspective

Literature published in high-impact journals addressing Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) disclosure has often focused on developed economies, although emerging markets represent a significant proportion of companies worldwide, there is still no scientific consensus on the relationship between the presence of women on boards and ESG disclosure. This research aims to verify whether there is an influence of women's participation (gender diversity), in the audit committee, in the disclosure of ESG information with 294 regulated and non-regulated companies in [B]3 with financial information in the reference form and in the Thomas Reuters and Economática® database, referring to the years from 2013 to 2022, applying descriptive statistics and an econometric model with panel data for data processing. The results of this study offer important contributions to the discussion related to the role of women in social, environmental and governance (ESG) disclosures by providing new evidence from companies listed in [B]3, from the perspective of Agency Theory, concerned with risks to reputation, image and meeting the demand of investors concerned with issues of sustainability, inclusion and diversity. The research contributes to the understanding that female representation is a determining aspect in the probability of occurrence of those disclosures, and if associated with a longer term of office, they can contribute to the occurrence and expansion of ESG disclosures in these institutions. It is suggested that further investigations into the presence of women in other governance mechanisms, or executive levels of organizations.