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This study aims to analyse the gender composition of the 99 most liquid Brazilian companies listed in the Brazilian stock exchange (BM&FBovespa) in 2011. It proposes a discussion about gender inequality in Brazilian companies and provides data, made available for the first time to national and international literature, on gender composition in Brazilian boards.

This is a quantitative study, whose data were collected from the Annual Report of Corporate Governance of Listed Companies 2011 prepared by the Capital Aberto magazine on the makeup of the boards of the 100 most liquid Brazilian publicly traded companies. Descriptive multivariate regression tests were carried out to refine these findings.

The results show that only 5.4 per cent of the positions in the boards of these companies are occupied by women. Firms that have been listed for longer in the stock market and have more seats in their boards are more likely to have women directors in these boards, suggesting gender inequality in the 99 companies surveyed.

This study has a limitation with regards to the type of female board members in the sample. In other words, the authors were unable to determine if they were external or internal to the companies.

The study discusses gender inequality in Brazilian companies and contributes to the debate on a governmental proposal to adopt quota legislation to increase the number of women in boards of directors.

This study fulfils an identified need to know more about the gender composition of Brazilian boards.