The only daughters effect: examining the relationship between child gender and a CEO's hiring decisions

Purpose - This study investigates the relationship between child gender and a CEO's top management hiring decisions. Design/methodology/approach - Hypotheses were tested using secondary data on 121 S&P 500 male CEOs, their children, and their top management teams. Findings - Results indicate that child gender is associated with a male CEO's TMT hiring decisions. Specifically, we find that male CEOs with only daughters were significantly more likely to hire women to their TMTs than male CEOs with only sons and those with both sons and daughters. Practical implications - This study provides evidence for the roles of familiarity, learning, and empathy in reducing gender biases in selection decisions. Top management hiring decisions have wide implications for organizational settings in general and for the breaking of the glass ceiling in particular. Social implications - Reducing gender bias in top manager hiring decisions directly relates to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 5 of achieving gender equality as women are consistently under-represented at the top of organizations across the world. Originality/value - By focusing on the hiring of top managers, this study includes hiring decisions that directly impact firm operations. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between child gender and executive hiring decisions with a US S&P 500 sample.