Gender Diversity in Sustainability Reports: Evidence from Poland
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15678/krem.13660Keywords:
sustainability reports, gender diversity, non-financial disclosures, GRI Standards, ESGAbstract
Objective: The aim of the article is to assess reports on sustainable development of listed companies in Poland from the perspective of disclosures on gender diversity.
Research Design & Methods: The study covered 100 reports on sustainable development of companies included in the WIG20 index. The time range of the study covered the years 2017–2021. The first stage of the research consisted of conducting a quantitative analysis of the disclosures and companies accepted for the study. The second aimed to analyse the dynamics of changes in disclosures on gender diversity.
Findings: The empirical study conducted indicates that from 2017 to 2021 the number of disclosures regarding gender diversity in Poland increased. In each year the number of published disclosures was higher than in the previous year, although there are disclosures that recorded decreases during the period under review. An example may be 404-1-1-2: the number of hours of training that employees underwent by gender and the group of disclosures regarding parental leave, for which the dynamics indexes showed values lower than 1.
Implications / Recommendations: It was noticed that companies that appeared for the first time in the WIG20 index in the first year, were characterised by a small number of disclosures, which increased in subsequent years. On the other hand, the companies included in the index presented a relatively large range of disclosures throughout the period analysed, which resulted from their experience of preparing ESG reports. The research sample consisted of 20 listed companies, the time range of the study covered the years 2017–2021, therefore the results obtained cannot be generalised to the entire population.
Contribution: The article fits into the current trend of research conducted in the area of sustainable development reporting. Using statistical indexes, the dynamics of the development of gender diversity disclosures in ESG reports in Poland after 2017 was assessed. The obtained results may prove interesting both for the scientific community and for the entities which were subjects of the research.
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