Strategic Action Field Theory: Explaining Variation in the Percentage of Women on Boards in Credit Unions

A key feature of strategic action field (SAF) theory is the importance attached to collective identity, group membership, and social skills in understanding social orders. Gender is part of a SAF’s social order. This study investigates the relationship between credit union SAF choice and the percentage of women on boards. The setting is community credit unions in Northern Ireland where three distinct SAFs are explicitly identifiable, where board gender diversity is not subject to regulation, and where prior research identified financial management benefits from women on boards. The findings are that common understandings of the social order in community credit union SAFs are an important determinant of women on boards in credit unions. Credit unions belonging to the Orange Order SAF, a conservative religious organization, reveal a preference for a lower percentage of women on boards relative to credit unions not belonging to a SAF that emphasizes religious identity.