Do female directors add to climate-related disclosure? Critical mass and structural power in the context of exogenous shock

Abstract The aim of this paper is to investigate how the presence of women on corporate boards shapes the scope of climate disclosure on energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in the context of mandatory reporting introduced by the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD). Addressing inconsistencies in prior research and the limited evidence on gender-related dynamics in compliance with mandatory disclosure, we examine whether different forms of female board representation generate heterogeneous treatment effects once the NFRD enters into force. Using a sample of 72 companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange subject to the NFRD requirements, we apply a difference-in-differences design to capture firm-level variation in disclosure behavior over time. The findings show that the introduction of the NFRD does not affect all firms uniformly: Companies with a critical mass of at least three female directors or a female board chair experience significantly stronger post-NFRD increases in the scope of climate-related disclosure. These heterogeneous treatment effects suggest that numerical representation and structural power of female directors, treated independently, condition firms’ responsiveness to mandatory sustainability reporting. The results are robust to a series of additional tests, including pooled models, sector-specific subsamples, and propensity score matching.