How Can Female Directors' Influence on Responsible Production Become More Consequential?

ABSTRACT Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12, despite having the greatest linkage to other goals, remains underexplored. We examine the impact of female directors on SDG 12 (responsible production) by addressing two debates: whether their presence reflects genuine board diversity and whether they serve merely as token leaders. Using 2214 hand‐collected firm‐year observations from Indonesian‐listed firms (2017–2023), we find that all proxies of gender diversity and female directors negatively affect SDG 12. Although regulations mandating SDG 12, institutional ownership, and CSR committees promote responsible production, they all fail to catalyze the role of female directors. Even after controlling for endogeneity, our results remain consistent. All efforts to make their role more consequential face challenges—not due to their behavior, but rather because their presence indicates chronic tokenism. Male directors, as their counterparts, positively affect SDG 12 due to their greater number and representation.