Firms in controversial industries such as tobacco, alcohol, gambling, weapon, and nuclear power suffer organizational legitimacy problems. These firms, therefore, adopt various strategies to acquire legitimacy. Drawing on institutional theory, we conceptualize the top management team (TMT) gender diversity as a legitimacy-seeking strategy and examines how a firm’s belonging to a controversial sector affects TMT gender diversity. Based on a cross-country sample of 1542 firms operating in controversial industries from 34 countries and control sample with another set of 1542 similar-sized firms from non-controversial industries, the empirical evidence shows that belonging to a controversial industry exerts a positive impact on TMT gender diversity. The effect of industry belonging on TMT gender diversity is positively moderated by institutional gender parity and a low level of corruption. It indicates that institutional factors act as emancipative forces that foster women's empowerment. Taken together, our results for moderating variables highlight the role of institutional characteristics in supporting women empowerment initiatives.

烟草、酒精、赌博、武器和核能等有争议行业的公司面临组织合法性问题。因此，这些公司采取各种策略来获得合法性。借鉴制度理论，我们将高层管理团队 (TMT) 的性别多样性概念化为一种寻求合法性的策略，并研究了公司属于有争议的部门如何影响 TMT 性别多样性。基于来自 34 个国家的 1542 家在争议行业运营的跨国样本和另一组来自非争议行业的 1542 家类似规模的企业的控制样本，经验证据表明，归属于争议行业对TMT 性别多样性。行业归属感对 TMT 性别多样性的影响受到制度性别平等和低腐败水平的积极调节。它表明制度因素是促进妇女赋权的解放力量。总之，我们对调节变量的结果突出了制度特征在支持妇女赋权倡议方面的作用。