1.7 Reading guidance

This PhD dissertation is structured as follows. Chapter 2 examines the barriers identified in the extant literature that hinder women from advancing to the corporate top and analyzes whether, and if so how, they relate to each other. Chapter 3 discusses a type of governmental intervention by directing attention to the governmental practice of imposing gender quota on companies, and by comparing the Belgian and Dutch approach thereto. Chapter 4 focuses on the justifications for companies for having women on their boards and on organizational interventions adopted and implemented by more than 70 Dutch listed companies. Chapter 5 focuses on organizational interventions in four case study companies in the Netherlands. In the concluding Chapter 6, the contribution of each of the four studies to the underlying theories will be discussed, as well as how the results of the four studies contribute to answering the main research question.