Networks of Boards of Directors: Is the 'Golden Skirts' Only an Illusion?

In this empirical research, using a database of 41,107 directors from 38 European countries from 1999 to 2015, we analyze the topological features of the director's networks and observe that the degree distribution for both men and women follows a power law. The exponent of the power law is higher for women than the one for men, suggesting a milder role of interlocking for women that points to the absence of the 'Golden Skirts' phenomenon at the European level (i.e.