This paper examines the effects of corporate behaviors related to sustainable management which are presumably intended to attain institutional legitimacy on the diversity of board of directors in terms of the proportion of female executives in board composition. While previous studies focused mainly on roles of female board members in the advancement of corporate social responsibility or accounting transparency, we pay attention to the institutional factors that may affect female executives’ participation in the board of directors. The results of our empirical analysis of leading Korean corporations in terms of market capitalization from 2014 to 2018 show that corporate characteristics and behaviors related to sustainability and institutional dynamics, such as publishing sustainability report, sensitivity of environmental issues, and visibility within institutional fields, have positive effects on the participation of female executives in the board of directors, as predicted in our hypotheses.