The Gender Impact Gap: Introducing a quantitative gender indicator to measure female impact on Swedish business

Abstract: This thesis examines whether female impact on Swedish business corresponds to female participation in Swedish business. To address this research question, we create a new quantitative gender indicator to measure female impact, called the Impactful Position Indicator (IPI). When comparing the value of the introduced IPI to the value of a standard participation metric, a gender impact gap in group executive teams of Swedish Large Cap firms is identified. The results show that the percentage of women in impactful positions is lower than the percentage of women in group executive teams. Together with qualitative findings from female Chief Executive Officers and previous research on gender and managerial impact, we further introduce a Gender Impact Gap Framework. The framework aims to illustrate a model to assess reasons for, implications, and solutions to this gap. Moreover, it can guide the implementation of interventions to close any identified gender impact gaps in organisations. In conclusion, both the quantitative and qualitative findings support that the IPI contributes to an improved assessment of gender equality in Swedish business.