This study integrates corporate visibility as a crucial factor for gender board diversity spillovers. We investigate whether greater gender diversity in supervisory roles – that is, board positions legally mandated to oversee top management appointments, strategic direction, and compliance – leads to greater gender diversity in top executive positions among publicly listed and private firms in Europe. We use a novel and comprehensive dataset of approximately 1.8 million corporations from 29 advanced and emerging European countries spanning nearly four decades. We confirm positive diversity spillovers for companies which are subject to public scrutiny, such as publicly listed companies or the largest employers. Appointing a woman in a supervisory role is associated with a 5-8 percentage points higher probability of subsequently introducing female talent to the top executive team. In contrast, companies with low corporate visibility, such as private firms, do not show spillovers of gender board diversity.
