Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and gender equality: a Foucauldian perspective

Purpose – The EU Directive 2022/2464 “Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive” (CSRD) introduced the requirement of disclosure about ESG topics in compliance with European Sustainability Reporting Standard for many companies. Particularly, it introduces for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 the requirement also for small and complex institutes that are large or listed to disclosure firms’ information in according to CSRD. This paper aims to analyze if the introduction of mandatory disclosure about this topic has influenced gender equality. Design/methodology/approach – We used a qualitative method, analyzing and comparing indicators of gender equality in sustainability report before and after the publishing of CSRD. To create our sample, we started from the European Central Bank (ECB) list of directly and indirectly supervised entities, and among the Less significant institutions (LSIs) we selected the cooperative banks. After some adjustments we composed our sample of 11 cooperative banks affected by the CSRD. We discussed this through the lens of disciplinary power of Foucault’s theory. Foucault argued that “the Panopticon induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power […] the inmate must never know whether he is being looked at any one moment; but he must be sure that he may always be so … (pp. 200–201)”. In this perspective, people used the disciplinary power to obtain a particular behaviour by others. Implications for research and practice – This article supports academic, policy makers and decision-makers. Particularly, it contributes to existing literature about the effects on firms of introduction of CSRD. It supports policy maker to understand the potential of a new law on the firm’s behavoiur. This leads decision-makers to reflect on how their behaviour is in reality influenced by disciplinary power. Originality/value – This article fills a gap in the literature on how the recent CSRD (2022) promulgation that companies have to comply with in terms of disclosure also impacts on the values of gender equality indicators. Particularly, it provides an interpretation of firm’s behaviour in response to introduction of CSRD. We demonstrate that also in the case of CSRD there is a disciplinary power that induce purposeful behaviour.