Women on boards and bank profitability in Vietnam: Rethinking gender diversity and state ownership in an emerging economy

This study examines the relationship between board gender diversity and the profitability of Vietnamese commercial banks, while also assessing the moderating role of state ownership. Using panel data for 29 banks over 2012–2023 and estimating a feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) model, profitability is measured by net interest margin (NIM), return on assets (ROA), and return on equity (ROE), and gender diversity is proxied by the proportion of female directors on the board (BGD) and a dummy indicating the presence of at least one female director (DWO). The results indicate that board gender diversity is negatively associated with profitability, most notably for NIM, and the evidence suggests that the relationship primarily reflects an extensive-margin effect (female presence versus absence) rather than a clear “critical mass” mechanism when diversity is disaggregated by the number of female directors. State ownership is negatively associated with profitability and may strengthen the negative link between female board intensity and profitability, whereas the presence-based measure shows weaker variation across ownership types. Overall, the findings point to a context-dependent gender diversity–profitability relationship, suggesting that institutional frictions and ownership arrangements in emerging markets may constrain the extent to which board-level gender diversity translates into profitability.