We addressed your suggestion to improve arguments and discussion of findings by revising existing and adding new paragraphs better explaining regression coefficients that demonstrate how political and economic uncertainty shapes the relationship between corporate board gender diversity and firms’ environmental performance. (Lines 379-389). Furthermore, we added supporting arguments disseminated across the text (particularly in lines 348-361, lines 379-389, etc). These relate our finding to theory. We focus here on the attitude towards risk and uncertainties. Women on corporate boards tend to be more risk-averse and lean more toward conservatism in uncertain environments. Therefore, the more females there are on corporate boards, the higher their weight in the board decisions would be, and by the same token, the higher the effect of uncertainty on firms’ decisions. Moreover, we also relate our findings to the critical mass theory, suggesting that the impact of gender diversity on the environmental performances of firms materializes only when a critical mass weight of females is realized in corporate boards (Konrad et al. 2008, Torchia et al. 2011, Schwartz-Ziv, 2017- page 12, lines 445-451).
They contribute to anchoring economic agents’ expectations, and stabilize the economy.