This study analyzes shareholder dissent, board-level gender diversity, and director commitment in companies that employ the majority voting system when electing directors. Using hand-collected data, we find that boards with a higher proportion of female directors are less susceptible to shareholder dissent in director elections. We also find that shareholders respond negatively to directors’ poor attendance at meetings by voting against them in subsequent director elections. However, this relationship appears to reverse in gender-diverse boards. This finding suggests that diverse boards are shielded from adverse shareholder reaction to poor attendance records.

Keywords: shareholder dissent, female directors, board meeting attendance, director commitment, majority voting system