RT Journal Article
T1 Is female leadership related to the hiring of people with disabilities? Evidence from European firms
A1 Jurado-Caraballo, María Ángeles
A1 Quintana-García, Cristina
K1 Liderazgo femenino
K1 Personas con discapacidad - Empleo
AB Purpose - People with disabilities (PwD) continue to be underrepresented in the labour market despite worldwide legislation protecting their labour rights. Previous studies have shown that gender diversity at upper corporate levels may be positively related to the hiring of other diverse minority groups. Based on the "upper echelon" and "social role" theories, the present article endeavours to examine the manner in which the inclusion of people with disabilities (PwD) in organisations is influenced by gender diversity at two distinct levels: the firms' boards of directors and the top management teams (TMTs). Design/methodology/approach - Our research setting is grounded in a panel dataset of 1,745 European public companies from all productive sectors for the period 2007-2018. We conducted a longitudinal study using this panel data, drawn from the Refinitiv ESG database of Thomson Reuters Eikon in order to test the hypotheses. Findings - Our results support a positive and significant association between the gender diversity of the boards and TMTs and the proportion of PwD hired by each organisation. We expand knowledge regarding the effect of gender diversity in leadership on inclusive actions of business diversity, focusing on the specific dimension of disability.Originality - We carried out a quantitative empirical study, which to our knowledge is the first to research this relationship at the two highest levels of a firm, analysing how the vulnerable group of PwD could benefit from the influence that women members of a board and TMT can exert to facilitate their hiring and take advantage of their talent and abilities, adopting an inclusive organisational culture.
PB Emerald
YR 2026
FD 2026-02-09
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/45411
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/45411
LA eng
NO Jurado-Caraballo, M. Á., and Quintana-García, C. (2026), “Is female leadership related to the hiring of people with disabilities? Evidence from European firms”. Personnel Review, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. pp. 1-24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-07-2024-0644
NO Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte FPU15/01546
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 4 mar 2026