The Impact Of Female Directors On The Speed Of Capital Structure Adjustment

Today,the women’s education level is constantly improving,their social status is rising,and the degree of labor participation continues to deepen.More and more women begin to enter enterprise,and even enter the management and decisionmaking level of the enterprise.At the same time,various countries have introduced corresponding policies to regulate the proportion of female directors in enterprises.As the core decision-making department,the board of directors has a crucial influence on the decision of capital structure which is closely related to the enhancement of enterprise value.In theory,compared with men,women have different performances in terms of risk preference and psychological characteristics,so what role do female directors play in the process of capital structure adjustment?Therefore,based on the Principal-agent Theory,Resource Dependence Theory,etc.,we research the relationship between female directors and the speed of capital structure adjustment,further analyze the impact of female directors with different backgrounds,and explore the impact mechanism.With the A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2020 as the sample,this paper uses the capital structure adjustment model and Logit model to conduct empirical tests.The research results show that the proportion of female directors is positively correlate with the speed of capital structure adjustment;the greater the proportion of female directors with independent female directors、financial background or academic background,the faster the adjustment,but the impact of female directors with overseas backgrounds isn’t obvious;the proportion of female directors has greater impact on low-leverage companies in different adjustment directions;as for different external audit environments,female directors play a more significant governance role in companies with worse audit environments;female directors directly contribute to recapitalization mainly by increasing debt,and by improving the quality of internal control and suppressing the difference of executive compensation indirectly.Based on the above results,this paper proposes the following optimization suggestions: As far as the country is concerned,on the one hand,attention should be paid to the role of female directors in corporate management,and policies can be introduced to escort the performance of female directors’ functions;on the other hand,it is necessary to continue to provide convenience for debt financing,improve the capital market,and unblock equity financing channels.For enterprises,especially those with weak external audits,they should take the initiative to admit women to the board of directors and entrust them with important responsibilities.But when recruiting women directors,they should also pay attention to their background experience.