If more women had been bank executives the crisis could have been averted...

UK Labor deputy leader and Equality Minister Harriet Harman supported by the two academics said this week that “men cannot be trusted to run things on their own”. She also hinted that the credit crisis could have been averted if more women had been included into the boards.

The Journal of Financial Economics published a research that showed female board members acted more independently though of course it not always meant the efficiency and high profits for a company. The research said that companies with more women on the board were more likely to be tough on chief executives, speedily removing those with poor stock price performance.

“Women behave more like independent directors — they are less likely to move in the same social circles as the chief executive or play golf together and so they are going to be tougher,” said Daniel Ferreira, of the London School of Economics, and Renee Adams, of the University of Queensland. “Having women on the board makes the board tougher on monitoring chief executives, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into better profitability and stock market performance.”

This study was opposed by working directors and chairmen, who say that it is impossible to stereotype male and female behavior in the boardroom or link it to performance.

Furthermore, Dr Ferreira doubted whether more women could have prevented the banking crisis. “We have shown that women are tougher on chief executives after performance has fallen, but it is difficult to say whether they would have prevented the fall,” he said. “I am reluctant to say they could have prevented the banking crisis.”

Patience Wheatcroft, Editor-in-Chief of The Wall Street Journal Europe and a former non-executive director of Barclays Bank, said: “We just don’t know if a boardroom stuffed with women would be more risk-averse than a boardroom stuffed with men. There are risk-averse men and there are women who are afraid to ask the tough questions — you can’t generalize.”