The Influence of Gender Discrimination and Gender Equality on Corporate Tax Aggressiveness

Abstract

In this paper, we examine whether gender diversity on board audit committees promotes socially responsible corporate tax behavior by analyzing the influence of female directors on aggressive tax strategies. We explore this relationship through the complementary lenses of agency and resource dependence theories. We hypothesize and find that gender discrimination in board appointments, gender-diverse committees, and the expertise of female directors play a decisive role in shaping their contribution to addressing tax-risk issues at the audit committee level. Our findings indicate that the presence of female directors on the audit committee significantly reduces corporate tax aggressiveness in gender-diverse and female-dominant environments, with the effect further enhanced by female expertise. Furthermore, we uncover that this effect disappears in firms exhibiting gender-discriminatory practices, where the presence of female directors is instead associated with increased tax aggressiveness. These findings suggest that gender discrimination and women's self-selection into less tax-aggressive firms may act as confounding factors when assessing the impact of female directors on corporate tax behavior.