Female Participation in Public Interest Nonprofit Governance: Yet Another Glass Ceiling?

Abstract

Women are disproportionately represented in staffing of nonprofit organizations yet are found much less frequently in positions of organizational governance: executive directorships and board memberships. Using data collected from more than 200 public interest nonprofit organizations and from semistructured personal interviews with public interest nonprofit board members, this empirical analysis provides insights into the organizational biases and candidate attributes that inhibit women in their efforts at attaining governing positions in the nonprofit sector.