The composition of the board of directors is highly relevant to a firm’s capital structure and likelihood of financial distress. This study builds on the complementary proposals of agency theory and gender theories based on gender-differential behavior. We examine whether the gender diversity of the board affects firms’ capital structure (leverage, cost of debt, and debt maturity) and likelihood of bankruptcy. For a sample of European firms over the period 2002 to 2019, we find that the percentage of women directors is the most influential board characteristic in terms of capital structure decisions. This characteristic is negatively related to leverage, cost of debt, and debt maturity. We also find that having a small and independent board with a high ratio of women directors reduces the likelihood of financial distress. However, CEO duality does not have a significant impact on the likelihood of financial distress or capital structure decisions.

董事会的组成与公司的资本结构和财务困境的可能性高度相关。本研究建立在基于性别差异行为的代理理论和性别理论的互补建议之上。我们研究了董事会的性别多样性是否会影响公司的资本结构（杠杆、债务成本和债务到期日）和破产的可能性。对于 2002 年至 2019 年期间的欧洲公司样本，我们发现女性董事的百分比是在资本结构决策方面最具影响力的董事会特征。该特征与杠杆、债务成本和债务到期日呈负相关。我们还发现，拥有女性董事比例高的小型独立董事会可以降低财务困境的可能性。然而，