Gendered governance and financial reporting quality: evidence from Norwegian museum foundations

We respond to a call for more research on diversity and governance of cultural organizations. Our research aims to measure the representation of women in governance positions at Norwegian museum foundations, and we hypothesize and test an association with financial reporting quality. Psychology literature documents that women report higher dutifulness than men and management literature demonstrates that male and female directors have differing core values. Moreover, prior accounting literature posits that individual attributes of governance actors affect financial reporting. We predict a positive association between a museum foundation’s financial reporting quality and: 1. A female museum director 2. The proportion of female board members 3. A female external auditor. Our sample consists of all Norwegian museum foundations that have at least one employee in 2021–2023 and are being audited. Governance data for our observations are manually collected. Our main findings are as follows: Museum foundations’ financial reporting quality is positively associated with 1. Female museum directors with at least 3 years tenure 2. The percentage of women on museum foundations’ boards 3. Female external auditors. Our findings contribute to ongoing discussions on diversity in the museum sector and the gender equality goal for sustainable development as stipulated by the United Nations.