example of research paper about gender equality

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• 06 September 2023

Gender equality: the route to a better world

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The Mosuo people of China include sub-communities in which inheritance passes down either the male or the female line. Credit: TPG/Getty

The fight for global gender equality is nowhere close to being won. Take education: in 87 countries, less than half of women and girls complete secondary schooling, according to 2023 data. Afghanistan’s Taliban continues to ban women and girls from secondary schools and universities . Or take reproductive health: abortion rights have been curtailed in 22 US states since the Supreme Court struck down federal protections, depriving women and girls of autonomy and restricting access to sexual and reproductive health care .

SDG 5, whose stated aim is to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, is the fifth of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, all of which Nature is examining in a series of editorials. SDG 5 includes targets for ending discrimination and violence against women and girls in both public and private spheres, eradicating child marriage and female genital mutilation, ensuring sexual and reproductive rights, achieving equal representation of women in leadership positions and granting equal rights to economic resources. Globally, the goal is not on track to being achieved, and just a handful of countries have hit all the targets.

How the world should oppose the Taliban’s war on women and girls

In July, the UN introduced two new indices (see go.nature.com/3eus9ue ), the Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI) and the Global Gender Parity Index (GGPI). The WEI measures women’s ability and freedoms to make their own choices; the GGPI describes the gap between women and men in areas such as health, education, inclusion and decision making. The indices reveal, depressingly, that even achieving a small gender gap does not automatically translate to high levels of women’s empowerment: 114 countries feature in both indices, but countries that do well on both scores cover fewer than 1% of all girls and women.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made things worse, with women bearing the highest burden of extra unpaid childcare when schools needed to close, and subjected to intensified domestic violence. Although child marriages declined from 21% of all marriages in 2016 to 19% in 2022, the pandemic threatened even this incremental progress, pushing up to 10 million more girls into risk of child marriage over the next decade, in addition to the 100 million girls who were at risk before the pandemic.

Of the 14 indicators for SDG 5, only one or two are close to being met by the 2030 deadline. As of 1 January 2023, women occupied 35.4% of seats in local-government assemblies, an increase from 33.9% in 2020 (the target is gender parity by 2030). In 115 countries for which data were available, around three-quarters, on average, of the necessary laws guaranteeing full and equal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights had been enacted. But the UN estimates that worldwide, only 57% of women who are married or in a union make their own decisions regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Systemic discrimination against girls and women by men, in many contexts, remains a colossal barrier to achieving gender equality. But patriarchy is not some “natural order of things” , argues Ruth Mace, an anthropologist at University College London. Hundreds of women-centred societies exist around the world. As the science writer Angela Saini describes in her latest book, The Patriarchs , these are often not the polar opposite of male-dominated systems, but societies in which men and women share decision making .

After Roe v. Wade: dwindling US abortion access is harming health a year later

One example comes from the Mosuo people in China, who have both ‘matrilineal’ and ‘patrilineal’ communities, with rights such as inheritance passing down either the male or female line. Researchers compared outcomes for inflammation and hypertension in men and women in these communities, and found that women in matrilineal societies, in which they have greater autonomy and control over resources, experienced better health outcomes. The researchers found no significant negative effect of matriliny on health outcomes for men ( A.  Z. Reynolds et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117 , 30324–30327; 2020 ).

When it comes to the SDGs, evidence is emerging that a more gender-equal approach to politics and power benefits many goals. In a study published in May, Nobue Amanuma, deputy director of the Integrated Sustainability Centre at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies in Hayama, Japan, and two of her colleagues tested whether countries with more women legislators, and more younger legislators, are performing better in the SDGs ( N. Amanuma et al. Environ. Res. Lett. 18 , 054018; 2023 ). They found it was so, with the effect more marked for socio-economic goals such as ending poverty and hunger, than for environmental ones such as climate action or preserving life on land. The researchers recommend further qualitative and quantitative studies to better understand the reasons.

The reality that gender equality leads to better outcomes across other SDGs is not factored, however, into most of the goals themselves. Of the 230 unique indicators of the SDGs, 51 explicitly reference women, girls, gender or sex, including the 14 indicators in SDG 5. But there is not enough collaboration between organizations responsible for the different SDGs to ensure that sex and gender are taken into account. The indicator for the sanitation target (SDG 6) does not include data disaggregated by sex or gender ( Nature 620 , 7; 2023 ). Unless we have this knowledge, it will be hard to track improvements in this and other SDGs.

The road to a gender-equal world is long, and women’s power and freedom to make choices is still very constrained. But the evidence from science is getting stronger: distributing power between genders creates the kind of world we all need and want to be living in.

Nature 621 , 8 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02745-9

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Gender equality in research: papers and projects by Highly Cited Researchers

Strategic Alliances and Engagement Manager

Empowering women and girls is a critical target of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this installment of our blog series about Highly Cited Researchers contributing to the UN SDGs, we focus on SDG 5: Gender Equality. We discuss the research that Highly Cited Researchers have published and the trends we’re seeing emerge.

Gender equality is a fundamental human right and yet women have just three quarters of the legal rights of men today. While the speed of progress differs across regions, laws, policies, budgets and institutions must all be strengthened on an international scale to grant women equal rights as men.

The socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and high-profile policy changes like the overturning of Roe v. Wade have shown how much work needs to be done. The COVID-19 pandemic caused many women to leave the workforce and amplified challenges related to child and elder care, with women shouldering much of the burden. This can disproportionately affect girls’ educational prospects and, as is often the case in stressful environments and during times of crisis, puts women at increased risk of domestic violence .

While some high-profile issues related to women’s rights and safety make the news cycle, gender inequalities are firmly entrenched in every society, impacting the daily lives of women and girls in ways that are rarely reported on. As Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States, once said , “from the economy to climate change to criminal justice reform to national security, all issues are women’s issues.”

Women’s issues are interconnected with all the SDGs, as we touched on in our recent post in this series, which explored the research centered around SDG 16: Peaceful, just and strong institutions . In that post we found that sexual, domestic and intimate partner abuse and violence against women are the most published topics related to SDG 16.

In this post, we look at Highly Cited Researchers who focus specifically on SDG 5 and issues of equality and gender .

What is SDG 5: Gender equality?

SDG 5: Gender Equality is intended to address the serious inequalities and threats faced by women around the globe. The targets related to this goal include:

• End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.
• Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.
• Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.

There has been an increase in articles and reviews related to this SDG since the establishment of the SDGs in 2015. This trend graph from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics ™, using Web of Science Core Collection ™ data, shows growth from 86,000 papers in 2015 to 152,000 in 2021. That’s a 77% increase in six years.

Growth in academic papers related to SDG 5: Gender Equality

Source: Incites Benchmarking & Analytics. Dataset: articles and reviews related to SDG 5: Gender Equality published between 2015-2021.

The top ten countries publishing on SDG 5: Gender Equality during this period are shown below, with the U.S. producing roughly one third of all papers.

Countries producing the most papers related to SDG 5: Gender Equality

We explore these angles from research published between 2010 and 2020 in more detail, below.

Inequalities in the treatment of women during childbirth

Özge Tunçalp , a Highly Cited Researcher from the World Health Organization (WHO), wrote a systematic review in 2015 about the mistreatment of women globally during childbirth. This paper, coauthored with Johns Hopkins University, McGill University, University of Sao Paulo and PSI (a global nonprofit working in healthcare), has been cited more than 590 times to date in the Web of Science Core Collection. Tunçalp’s paper provides further information about the type and degree of mistreatment in childbirth, which supports the development of measurement tools, programs and interventions in this area.

Tunçalp authored another open access paper on this topic in 2019 , which followed women in four low-income and middle-income countries to study their experiences during childbirth. Unfortunately, more than one third of the women in the study experienced mistreatment during childbirth, a critical time in their lives, with younger and less educated women found to be most at risk. Beyond showing that mistreatment during childbirth exists, this study demonstrates the inequalities in how some women are treated in comparison to others, which informs the interventions needed.

“Our research showed that mistreatment during childbirth occurs across low-, middle- and high-income countries and good quality of care needs to be respectful as well as safe, no matter where you are in the world.” Dr Özge Tunçalp, World Health Organization

According to Dr. Tunçalp, “Women and families have a right to positive pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal experiences, supported by empowered health workers, majority of whom are women. Improving the experience of care throughout pregnancy and childbirth is essential to help increase the trust in facility-based care – as well as ensuring access to quality postnatal care following birth. Our research showed that mistreatment during childbirth occurs across low-, middle- and high-income countries and good quality of care needs to be respectful as well as safe, no matter where you are in the world. It was critical to ensure that these findings were translated into WHO global recommendations to inform country policy and programmes .”

Autism spectrum disorder and the gender bias in diagnosis

William Mandy, a Highly Cited Researcher in Psychiatry and Psychology, looks at gender differences related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Mandy, from University College London, and his co-authors found that the male-to-female ratio of children with ASD is closer to 3:1, not the often assumed 4:1 . With an apparent gender bias in diagnosis, girls who meet the criteria for ASD are at risk of being misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all. This can cause confusion and challenges with social interactions growing up, and can put women and girls at greater risk of traumatic experiences. Mandy et al’s paper has been cited more than 830 times to date.

“The reason for this diagnostic bias is that sex and gender influence how autism presents, such that the presentations of autistic girls and women often do not fit well with current conceptualisations of the condition, which were largely based on mainly male samples.” Dr William Mandy, University College London

When asked about the relevance of his research to the clinical community, Dr. Mandy said: “Clinicians have long held the suspicion that there is a diagnostic bias against autistic girls and women – that they are more likely to fly under the diagnostic radar. Our work (Loomes et al., 2017) has helped to provide systematic, empirical evidence that this bias does indeed exist, and to quantify its impact, in terms of how many autistic girls go undiagnosed.

The reason for this diagnostic bias is that sex and gender influence how autism presents, such that the presentations of autistic girls and women often do not fit well with current conceptualisations of the condition, which were largely based on mainly male samples. Therefore, to address the gender bias in autism diagnosis, we need an evidence-based understanding of the characteristics of autistic girls and women. Our study (Bargiela et al, 2016), in which we interviewed late-diagnosed autistic women about their lives, helps do this, revealing distinctive features of autistic women and of their experiences. This knowledge is shaping research and clinical practice.”

Going forward

The above papers are just a few examples of Highly Cited Researchers contributing to SDG 5-Gender Equality. Others focus on depression, Alzheimer’s Disease, cardiovascular disease and ovarian cancer. The fact that biomedical research featured so prominently in these results should not be a surprise. Gender bias has been identified in many areas of healthcare, including patient diagnosis , discrimination against health care workers , and low rates of women in clinical studies to name a few.

The Highly Cited Researchers working on gender equality within their respective fields, which also include social sciences, economics and other areas in addition to medicine, are helping to address the complex issues related to SDG 5. And what’s worthy of note is that many of the researchers mentioned here were named as Highly Cited Researchers in the cross-field category, which identifies researchers who have contributed to Highly Cited Papers across several different fields. This shows that a multifaceted and integrated approach to gender equality research may be playing a significant role in addressing this global issue.

Stay up to date

We discussed the SDG Publishers Compact in the first post in our series and then celebrated the Highly Cited Researchers in SDG 1: No Poverty and SDG 2: Zero Hunger. We then covered SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being and SDG 4: Quality Education , and then jumped ahead to cover SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions . Alongside this, we also looked at Ukrainian research contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, here , and published an Institute for Scientific Information (ISI)™Insights paper called, Climate change collaboration: Why we need an international approach to research .

In our next post, we will identify Highly Cited Researchers who are working to address SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation.

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Twenty years of gender equality research: A scoping review based on a new semantic indicator

Paola belingheri.

1 Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Energia, dei Sistemi, del Territorio e delle Costruzioni, Università degli Studi di Pisa, Largo L. Lazzarino, Pisa, Italy

Filippo Chiarello

Andrea fronzetti colladon.

2 Department of Engineering, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

3 Department of Management, Kozminski University, Warsaw, Poland

Paola Rovelli

4 Faculty of Economics and Management, Centre for Family Business Management, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bozen-Bolzano, Italy

Associated Data

All relevant data are within the manuscript and its supporting information files. The only exception is the text of the abstracts (over 15,000) that we have downloaded from Scopus. These abstracts can be retrieved from Scopus, but we do not have permission to redistribute them.

Gender equality is a major problem that places women at a disadvantage thereby stymieing economic growth and societal advancement. In the last two decades, extensive research has been conducted on gender related issues, studying both their antecedents and consequences. However, existing literature reviews fail to provide a comprehensive and clear picture of what has been studied so far, which could guide scholars in their future research. Our paper offers a scoping review of a large portion of the research that has been published over the last 22 years, on gender equality and related issues, with a specific focus on business and economics studies. Combining innovative methods drawn from both network analysis and text mining, we provide a synthesis of 15,465 scientific articles. We identify 27 main research topics, we measure their relevance from a semantic point of view and the relationships among them, highlighting the importance of each topic in the overall gender discourse. We find that prominent research topics mostly relate to women in the workforce–e.g., concerning compensation, role, education, decision-making and career progression. However, some of them are losing momentum, and some other research trends–for example related to female entrepreneurship, leadership and participation in the board of directors–are on the rise. Besides introducing a novel methodology to review broad literature streams, our paper offers a map of the main gender-research trends and presents the most popular and the emerging themes, as well as their intersections, outlining important avenues for future research.

Introduction

The persistent gender inequalities that currently exist across the developed and developing world are receiving increasing attention from economists, policymakers, and the general public [e.g., 1 – 3 ]. Economic studies have indicated that women’s education and entry into the workforce contributes to social and economic well-being [e.g., 4 , 5 ], while their exclusion from the labor market and from managerial positions has an impact on overall labor productivity and income per capita [ 6 , 7 ]. The United Nations selected gender equality, with an emphasis on female education, as part of the Millennium Development Goals [ 8 ], and gender equality at-large as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030 [ 9 ]. These latter objectives involve not only developing nations, but rather all countries, to achieve economic, social and environmental well-being.

As is the case with many SDGs, gender equality is still far from being achieved and persists across education, access to opportunities, or presence in decision-making positions [ 7 , 10 , 11 ]. As we enter the last decade for the SDGs’ implementation, and while we are battling a global health pandemic, effective and efficient action becomes paramount to reach this ambitious goal.

Scholars have dedicated a massive effort towards understanding gender equality, its determinants, its consequences for women and society, and the appropriate actions and policies to advance women’s equality. Many topics have been covered, ranging from women’s education and human capital [ 12 , 13 ] and their role in society [e.g., 14 , 15 ], to their appointment in firms’ top ranked positions [e.g., 16 , 17 ] and performance implications [e.g., 18 , 19 ]. Despite some attempts, extant literature reviews provide a narrow view on these issues, restricted to specific topics–e.g., female students’ presence in STEM fields [ 20 ], educational gender inequality [ 5 ], the gender pay gap [ 21 ], the glass ceiling effect [ 22 ], leadership [ 23 ], entrepreneurship [ 24 ], women’s presence on the board of directors [ 25 , 26 ], diversity management [ 27 ], gender stereotypes in advertisement [ 28 ], or specific professions [ 29 ]. A comprehensive view on gender-related research, taking stock of key findings and under-studied topics is thus lacking.

Extant literature has also highlighted that gender issues, and their economic and social ramifications, are complex topics that involve a large number of possible antecedents and outcomes [ 7 ]. Indeed, gender equality actions are most effective when implemented in unison with other SDGs (e.g., with SDG 8, see [ 30 ]) in a synergetic perspective [ 10 ]. Many bodies of literature (e.g., business, economics, development studies, sociology and psychology) approach the problem of achieving gender equality from different perspectives–often addressing specific and narrow aspects. This sometimes leads to a lack of clarity about how different issues, circumstances, and solutions may be related in precipitating or mitigating gender inequality or its effects. As the number of papers grows at an increasing pace, this issue is exacerbated and there is a need to step back and survey the body of gender equality literature as a whole. There is also a need to examine synergies between different topics and approaches, as well as gaps in our understanding of how different problems and solutions work together. Considering the important topic of women’s economic and social empowerment, this paper aims to fill this gap by answering the following research question: what are the most relevant findings in the literature on gender equality and how do they relate to each other ?

To do so, we conduct a scoping review [ 31 ], providing a synthesis of 15,465 articles dealing with gender equity related issues published in the last twenty-two years, covering both the periods of the MDGs and the SDGs (i.e., 2000 to mid 2021) in all the journals indexed in the Academic Journal Guide’s 2018 ranking of business and economics journals. Given the huge amount of research conducted on the topic, we adopt an innovative methodology, which relies on social network analysis and text mining. These techniques are increasingly adopted when surveying large bodies of text. Recently, they were applied to perform analysis of online gender communication differences [ 32 ] and gender behaviors in online technology communities [ 33 ], to identify and classify sexual harassment instances in academia [ 34 ], and to evaluate the gender inclusivity of disaster management policies [ 35 ].

Applied to the title, abstracts and keywords of the articles in our sample, this methodology allows us to identify a set of 27 recurrent topics within which we automatically classify the papers. Introducing additional novelty, by means of the Semantic Brand Score (SBS) indicator [ 36 ] and the SBS BI app [ 37 ], we assess the importance of each topic in the overall gender equality discourse and its relationships with the other topics, as well as trends over time, with a more accurate description than that offered by traditional literature reviews relying solely on the number of papers presented in each topic.

This methodology, applied to gender equality research spanning the past twenty-two years, enables two key contributions. First, we extract the main message that each document is conveying and how this is connected to other themes in literature, providing a rich picture of the topics that are at the center of the discourse, as well as of the emerging topics. Second, by examining the semantic relationship between topics and how tightly their discourses are linked, we can identify the key relationships and connections between different topics. This semi-automatic methodology is also highly reproducible with minimum effort.

This literature review is organized as follows. In the next section, we present how we selected relevant papers and how we analyzed them through text mining and social network analysis. We then illustrate the importance of 27 selected research topics, measured by means of the SBS indicator. In the results section, we present an overview of the literature based on the SBS results–followed by an in-depth narrative analysis of the top 10 topics (i.e., those with the highest SBS) and their connections. Subsequently, we highlight a series of under-studied connections between the topics where there is potential for future research. Through this analysis, we build a map of the main gender-research trends in the last twenty-two years–presenting the most popular themes. We conclude by highlighting key areas on which research should focused in the future.

Our aim is to map a broad topic, gender equality research, that has been approached through a host of different angles and through different disciplines. Scoping reviews are the most appropriate as they provide the freedom to map different themes and identify literature gaps, thereby guiding the recommendation of new research agendas [ 38 ].

Several practical approaches have been proposed to identify and assess the underlying topics of a specific field using big data [ 39 – 41 ], but many of them fail without proper paper retrieval and text preprocessing. This is specifically true for a research field such as the gender-related one, which comprises the work of scholars from different backgrounds. In this section, we illustrate a novel approach for the analysis of scientific (gender-related) papers that relies on methods and tools of social network analysis and text mining. Our procedure has four main steps: (1) data collection, (2) text preprocessing, (3) keywords extraction and classification, and (4) evaluation of semantic importance and image.

Data collection

In this study, we analyze 22 years of literature on gender-related research. Following established practice for scoping reviews [ 42 ], our data collection consisted of two main steps, which we summarize here below.

Firstly, we retrieved from the Scopus database all the articles written in English that contained the term “gender” in their title, abstract or keywords and were published in a journal listed in the Academic Journal Guide 2018 ranking of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) ( https://charteredabs.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AJG2018-Methodology.pdf ), considering the time period from Jan 2000 to May 2021. We used this information considering that abstracts, titles and keywords represent the most informative part of a paper, while using the full-text would increase the signal-to-noise ratio for information extraction. Indeed, these textual elements already demonstrated to be reliable sources of information for the task of domain lexicon extraction [ 43 , 44 ]. We chose Scopus as source of literature because of its popularity, its update rate, and because it offers an API to ease the querying process. Indeed, while it does not allow to retrieve the full text of scientific articles, the Scopus API offers access to titles, abstracts, citation information and metadata for all its indexed scholarly journals. Moreover, we decided to focus on the journals listed in the AJG 2018 ranking because we were interested in reviewing business and economics related gender studies only. The AJG is indeed widely used by universities and business schools as a reference point for journal and research rigor and quality. This first step, executed in June 2021, returned more than 55,000 papers.

In the second step–because a look at the papers showed very sparse results, many of which were not in line with the topic of this literature review (e.g., papers dealing with health care or medical issues, where the word gender indicates the gender of the patients)–we applied further inclusion criteria to make the sample more focused on the topic of this literature review (i.e., women’s gender equality issues). Specifically, we only retained those papers mentioning, in their title and/or abstract, both gender-related keywords (e.g., daughter, female, mother) and keywords referring to bias and equality issues (e.g., equality, bias, diversity, inclusion). After text pre-processing (see next section), keywords were first identified from a frequency-weighted list of words found in the titles, abstracts and keywords in the initial list of papers, extracted through text mining (following the same approach as [ 43 ]). They were selected by two of the co-authors independently, following respectively a bottom up and a top-down approach. The bottom-up approach consisted of examining the words found in the frequency-weighted list and classifying those related to gender and equality. The top-down approach consisted in searching in the word list for notable gender and equality-related words. Table 1 reports the sets of keywords we considered, together with some examples of words that were used to search for their presence in the dataset (a full list is provided in the S1 Text ). At end of this second step, we obtained a final sample of 15,465 relevant papers.

Text processing and keyword extraction

Text preprocessing aims at structuring text into a form that can be analyzed by statistical models. In the present section, we describe the preprocessing steps we applied to paper titles and abstracts, which, as explained below, partially follow a standard text preprocessing pipeline [ 45 ]. These activities have been performed using the R package udpipe [ 46 ].

The first step is n-gram extraction (i.e., a sequence of words from a given text sample) to identify which n-grams are important in the analysis, since domain-specific lexicons are often composed by bi-grams and tri-grams [ 47 ]. Multi-word extraction is usually implemented with statistics and linguistic rules, thus using the statistical properties of n-grams or machine learning approaches [ 48 ]. However, for the present paper, we used Scopus metadata in order to have a more effective and efficient n-grams collection approach [ 49 ]. We used the keywords of each paper in order to tag n-grams with their associated keywords automatically. Using this greedy approach, it was possible to collect all the keywords listed by the authors of the papers. From this list, we extracted only keywords composed by two, three and four words, we removed all the acronyms and rare keywords (i.e., appearing in less than 1% of papers), and we clustered keywords showing a high orthographic similarity–measured using a Levenshtein distance [ 50 ] lower than 2, considering these groups of keywords as representing same concepts, but expressed with different spelling. After tagging the n-grams in the abstracts, we followed a common data preparation pipeline that consists of the following steps: (i) tokenization, that splits the text into tokens (i.e., single words and previously tagged multi-words); (ii) removal of stop-words (i.e. those words that add little meaning to the text, usually being very common and short functional words–such as “and”, “or”, or “of”); (iii) parts-of-speech tagging, that is providing information concerning the morphological role of a word and its morphosyntactic context (e.g., if the token is a determiner, the next token is a noun or an adjective with very high confidence, [ 51 ]); and (iv) lemmatization, which consists in substituting each word with its dictionary form (or lemma). The output of the latter step allows grouping together the inflected forms of a word. For example, the verbs “am”, “are”, and “is” have the shared lemma “be”, or the nouns “cat” and “cats” both share the lemma “cat”. We preferred lemmatization over stemming [ 52 ] in order to obtain more interpretable results.

In addition, we identified a further set of keywords (with respect to those listed in the “keywords” field) by applying a series of automatic words unification and removal steps, as suggested in past research [ 53 , 54 ]. We removed: sparse terms (i.e., occurring in less than 0.1% of all documents), common terms (i.e., occurring in more than 10% of all documents) and retained only nouns and adjectives. It is relevant to notice that no document was lost due to these steps. We then used the TF-IDF function [ 55 ] to produce a new list of keywords. We additionally tested other approaches for the identification and clustering of keywords–such as TextRank [ 56 ] or Latent Dirichlet Allocation [ 57 ]–without obtaining more informative results.

Classification of research topics

To guide the literature analysis, two experts met regularly to examine the sample of collected papers and to identify the main topics and trends in gender research. Initially, they conducted brainstorming sessions on the topics they expected to find, due to their knowledge of the literature. This led to an initial list of topics. Subsequently, the experts worked independently, also supported by the keywords in paper titles and abstracts extracted with the procedure described above.

Considering all this information, each expert identified and clustered relevant keywords into topics. At the end of the process, the two assignments were compared and exhibited a 92% agreement. Another meeting was held to discuss discordant cases and reach a consensus. This resulted in a list of 27 topics, briefly introduced in Table 2 and subsequently detailed in the following sections.

Evaluation of semantic importance

Working on the lemmatized corpus of the 15,465 papers included in our sample, we proceeded with the evaluation of semantic importance trends for each topic and with the analysis of their connections and prevalent textual associations. To this aim, we used the Semantic Brand Score indicator [ 36 ], calculated through the SBS BI webapp [ 37 ] that also produced a brand image report for each topic. For this study we relied on the computing resources of the ENEA/CRESCO infrastructure [ 58 ].

The Semantic Brand Score (SBS) is a measure of semantic importance that combines methods of social network analysis and text mining. It is usually applied for the analysis of (big) textual data to evaluate the importance of one or more brands, names, words, or sets of keywords [ 36 ]. Indeed, the concept of “brand” is intended in a flexible way and goes beyond products or commercial brands. In this study, we evaluate the SBS time-trends of the keywords defining the research topics discussed in the previous section. Semantic importance comprises the three dimensions of topic prevalence, diversity and connectivity. Prevalence measures how frequently a research topic is used in the discourse. The more a topic is mentioned by scientific articles, the more the research community will be aware of it, with possible increase of future studies; this construct is partly related to that of brand awareness [ 59 ]. This effect is even stronger, considering that we are analyzing the title, abstract and keywords of the papers, i.e. the parts that have the highest visibility. A very important characteristic of the SBS is that it considers the relationships among words in a text. Topic importance is not just a matter of how frequently a topic is mentioned, but also of the associations a topic has in the text. Specifically, texts are transformed into networks of co-occurring words, and relationships are studied through social network analysis [ 60 ]. This step is necessary to calculate the other two dimensions of our semantic importance indicator. Accordingly, a social network of words is generated for each time period considered in the analysis–i.e., a graph made of n nodes (words) and E edges weighted by co-occurrence frequency, with W being the set of edge weights. The keywords representing each topic were clustered into single nodes.

The construct of diversity relates to that of brand image [ 59 ], in the sense that it considers the richness and distinctiveness of textual (topic) associations. Considering the above-mentioned networks, we calculated diversity using the distinctiveness centrality metric–as in the formula presented by Fronzetti Colladon and Naldi [ 61 ].

Lastly, connectivity was measured as the weighted betweenness centrality [ 62 , 63 ] of each research topic node. We used the formula presented by Wasserman and Faust [ 60 ]. The dimension of connectivity represents the “brokerage power” of each research topic–i.e., how much it can serve as a bridge to connect other terms (and ultimately topics) in the discourse [ 36 ].

The SBS is the final composite indicator obtained by summing the standardized scores of prevalence, diversity and connectivity. Standardization was carried out considering all the words in the corpus, for each specific timeframe.

This methodology, applied to a large and heterogeneous body of text, enables to automatically identify two important sets of information that add value to the literature review. Firstly, the relevance of each topic in literature is measured through a composite indicator of semantic importance, rather than simply looking at word frequencies. This provides a much richer picture of the topics that are at the center of the discourse, as well as of the topics that are emerging in the literature. Secondly, it enables to examine the extent of the semantic relationship between topics, looking at how tightly their discourses are linked. In a field such as gender equality, where many topics are closely linked to each other and present overlaps in issues and solutions, this methodology offers a novel perspective with respect to traditional literature reviews. In addition, it ensures reproducibility over time and the possibility to semi-automatically update the analysis, as new papers become available.

Overview of main topics

In terms of descriptive textual statistics, our corpus is made of 15,465 text documents, consisting of a total of 2,685,893 lemmatized tokens (words) and 32,279 types. As a result, the type-token ratio is 1.2%. The number of hapaxes is 12,141, with a hapax-token ratio of 37.61%.

Fig 1 shows the list of 27 topics by decreasing SBS. The most researched topic is compensation , exceeding all others in prevalence, diversity, and connectivity. This means it is not only mentioned more often than other topics, but it is also connected to a greater number of other topics and is central to the discourse on gender equality. The next four topics are, in order of SBS, role , education , decision-making , and career progression . These topics, except for education , all concern women in the workforce. Between these first five topics and the following ones there is a clear drop in SBS scores. In particular, the topics that follow have a lower connectivity than the first five. They are hiring , performance , behavior , organization , and human capital . Again, except for behavior and human capital , the other three topics are purely related to women in the workforce. After another drop-off, the following topics deal prevalently with women in society. This trend highlights that research on gender in business journals has so far mainly paid attention to the conditions that women experience in business contexts, while also devoting some attention to women in society.

Fig 2 shows the SBS time series of the top 10 topics. While there has been a general increase in the number of Scopus-indexed publications in the last decade, we notice that some SBS trends remain steady, or even decrease. In particular, we observe that the main topic of the last twenty-two years, compensation , is losing momentum. Since 2016, it has been surpassed by decision-making , education and role , which may indicate that literature is increasingly attempting to identify root causes of compensation inequalities. Moreover, in the last two years, the topics of hiring , performance , and organization are experiencing the largest importance increase.

Fig 3 shows the SBS time trends of the remaining 17 topics (i.e., those not in the top 10). As we can see from the graph, there are some that maintain a steady trend–such as reputation , management , networks and governance , which also seem to have little importance. More relevant topics with average stationary trends (except for the last two years) are culture , family , and parenting . The feminine topic is among the most important here, and one of those that exhibit the larger variations over time (similarly to leadership ). On the other hand, the are some topics that, even if not among the most important, show increasing SBS trends; therefore, they could be considered as emerging topics and could become popular in the near future. These are entrepreneurship , leadership , board of directors , and sustainability . These emerging topics are also interesting to anticipate future trends in gender equality research that are conducive to overall equality in society.

In addition to the SBS score of the different topics, the network of terms they are associated to enables to gauge the extent to which their images (textual associations) overlap or differ ( Fig 4 ).

There is a central cluster of topics with high similarity, which are all connected with women in the workforce. The cluster includes topics such as organization , decision-making , performance , hiring , human capital , education and compensation . In addition, the topic of well-being is found within this cluster, suggesting that women’s equality in the workforce is associated to well-being considerations. The emerging topics of entrepreneurship and leadership are also closely connected with each other, possibly implying that leadership is a much-researched quality in female entrepreneurship. Topics that are relatively more distant include personality , politics , feminine , empowerment , management , board of directors , reputation , governance , parenting , masculine and network .

The following sections describe the top 10 topics and their main associations in literature (see Table 3 ), while providing a brief overview of the emerging topics.

Compensation

The topic of compensation is related to the topics of role , hiring , education and career progression , however, also sees a very high association with the words gap and inequality . Indeed, a well-known debate in degrowth economics centers around whether and how to adequately compensate women for their childbearing, childrearing, caregiver and household work [e.g., 30 ].

Even in paid work, women continue being offered lower compensations than their male counterparts who have the same job or cover the same role [ 64 – 67 ]. This severe inequality has been widely studied by scholars over the last twenty-two years. Dealing with this topic, some specific roles have been addressed. Specifically, research highlighted differences in compensation between female and male CEOs [e.g., 68 ], top executives [e.g., 69 ], and boards’ directors [e.g., 70 ]. Scholars investigated the determinants of these gaps, such as the gender composition of the board [e.g., 71 – 73 ] or women’s individual characteristics [e.g., 71 , 74 ].

Among these individual characteristics, education plays a relevant role [ 75 ]. Education is indeed presented as the solution for women, not only to achieve top executive roles, but also to reduce wage inequality [e.g., 76 , 77 ]. Past research has highlighted education influences on gender wage gaps, specifically referring to gender differences in skills [e.g., 78 ], college majors [e.g., 79 ], and college selectivity [e.g., 80 ].

Finally, the wage gap issue is strictly interrelated with hiring –e.g., looking at whether being a mother affects hiring and compensation [e.g., 65 , 81 ] or relating compensation to unemployment [e.g., 82 ]–and career progression –for instance looking at meritocracy [ 83 , 84 ] or the characteristics of the boss for whom women work [e.g., 85 ].

The roles covered by women have been deeply investigated. Scholars have focused on the role of women in their families and the society as a whole [e.g., 14 , 15 ], and, more widely, in business contexts [e.g., 18 , 81 ]. Indeed, despite still lagging behind their male counterparts [e.g., 86 , 87 ], in the last decade there has been an increase in top ranked positions achieved by women [e.g., 88 , 89 ]. Following this phenomenon, scholars have posed greater attention towards the presence of women in the board of directors [e.g., 16 , 18 , 90 , 91 ], given the increasing pressure to appoint female directors that firms, especially listed ones, have experienced. Other scholars have focused on the presence of women covering the role of CEO [e.g., 17 , 92 ] or being part of the top management team [e.g., 93 ]. Irrespectively of the level of analysis, all these studies tried to uncover the antecedents of women’s presence among top managers [e.g., 92 , 94 ] and the consequences of having a them involved in the firm’s decision-making –e.g., on performance [e.g., 19 , 95 , 96 ], risk [e.g., 97 , 98 ], and corporate social responsibility [e.g., 99 , 100 ].

Besides studying the difficulties and discriminations faced by women in getting a job [ 81 , 101 ], and, more specifically in the hiring , appointment, or career progression to these apical roles [e.g., 70 , 83 ], the majority of research of women’s roles dealt with compensation issues. Specifically, scholars highlight the pay-gap that still exists between women and men, both in general [e.g., 64 , 65 ], as well as referring to boards’ directors [e.g., 70 , 102 ], CEOs and executives [e.g., 69 , 103 , 104 ].

Finally, other scholars focused on the behavior of women when dealing with business. In this sense, particular attention has been paid to leadership and entrepreneurial behaviors. The former quite overlaps with dealing with the roles mentioned above, but also includes aspects such as leaders being stereotyped as masculine [e.g., 105 ], the need for greater exposure to female leaders to reduce biases [e.g., 106 ], or female leaders acting as queen bees [e.g., 107 ]. Regarding entrepreneurship , scholars mainly investigated women’s entrepreneurial entry [e.g., 108 , 109 ], differences between female and male entrepreneurs in the evaluations and funding received from investors [e.g., 110 , 111 ], and their performance gap [e.g., 112 , 113 ].

Education has long been recognized as key to social advancement and economic stability [ 114 ], for job progression and also a barrier to gender equality, especially in STEM-related fields. Research on education and gender equality is mostly linked with the topics of compensation , human capital , career progression , hiring , parenting and decision-making .

Education contributes to a higher human capital [ 115 ] and constitutes an investment on the part of women towards their future. In this context, literature points to the gender gap in educational attainment, and the consequences for women from a social, economic, personal and professional standpoint. Women are found to have less access to formal education and information, especially in emerging countries, which in turn may cause them to lose social and economic opportunities [e.g., 12 , 116 – 119 ]. Education in local and rural communities is also paramount to communicate the benefits of female empowerment , contributing to overall societal well-being [e.g., 120 ].

Once women access education, the image they have of the world and their place in society (i.e., habitus) affects their education performance [ 13 ] and is passed on to their children. These situations reinforce gender stereotypes, which become self-fulfilling prophecies that may negatively affect female students’ performance by lowering their confidence and heightening their anxiety [ 121 , 122 ]. Besides formal education, also the information that women are exposed to on a daily basis contributes to their human capital . Digital inequalities, for instance, stems from men spending more time online and acquiring higher digital skills than women [ 123 ].

Education is also a factor that should boost employability of candidates and thus hiring , career progression and compensation , however the relationship between these factors is not straightforward [ 115 ]. First, educational choices ( decision-making ) are influenced by variables such as self-efficacy and the presence of barriers, irrespectively of the career opportunities they offer, especially in STEM [ 124 ]. This brings additional difficulties to women’s enrollment and persistence in scientific and technical fields of study due to stereotypes and biases [ 125 , 126 ]. Moreover, access to education does not automatically translate into job opportunities for women and minority groups [ 127 , 128 ] or into female access to managerial positions [ 129 ].

Finally, parenting is reported as an antecedent of education [e.g., 130 ], with much of the literature focusing on the role of parents’ education on the opportunities afforded to children to enroll in education [ 131 – 134 ] and the role of parenting in their offspring’s perception of study fields and attitudes towards learning [ 135 – 138 ]. Parental education is also a predictor of the other related topics, namely human capital and compensation [ 139 ].

Decision-making

This literature mainly points to the fact that women are thought to make decisions differently than men. Women have indeed different priorities, such as they care more about people’s well-being, working with people or helping others, rather than maximizing their personal (or their firm’s) gain [ 140 ]. In other words, women typically present more communal than agentic behaviors, which are instead more frequent among men [ 141 ]. These different attitude, behavior and preferences in turn affect the decisions they make [e.g., 142 ] and the decision-making of the firm in which they work [e.g., 143 ].

At the individual level, gender affects, for instance, career aspirations [e.g., 144 ] and choices [e.g., 142 , 145 ], or the decision of creating a venture [e.g., 108 , 109 , 146 ]. Moreover, in everyday life, women and men make different decisions regarding partners [e.g., 147 ], childcare [e.g., 148 ], education [e.g., 149 ], attention to the environment [e.g., 150 ] and politics [e.g., 151 ].

At the firm level, scholars highlighted, for example, how the presence of women in the board affects corporate decisions [e.g., 152 , 153 ], that female CEOs are more conservative in accounting decisions [e.g., 154 ], or that female CFOs tend to make more conservative decisions regarding the firm’s financial reporting [e.g., 155 ]. Nevertheless, firm level research also investigated decisions that, influenced by gender bias, affect women, such as those pertaining hiring [e.g., 156 , 157 ], compensation [e.g., 73 , 158 ], or the empowerment of women once appointed [ 159 ].

Career progression

Once women have entered the workforce, the key aspect to achieve gender equality becomes career progression , including efforts toward overcoming the glass ceiling. Indeed, according to the SBS analysis, career progression is highly related to words such as work, social issues and equality. The topic with which it has the highest semantic overlap is role , followed by decision-making , hiring , education , compensation , leadership , human capital , and family .

Career progression implies an advancement in the hierarchical ladder of the firm, assigning managerial roles to women. Coherently, much of the literature has focused on identifying rationales for a greater female participation in the top management team and board of directors [e.g., 95 ] as well as the best criteria to ensure that the decision-makers promote the most valuable employees irrespectively of their individual characteristics, such as gender [e.g., 84 ]. The link between career progression , role and compensation is often provided in practice by performance appraisal exercises, frequently rooted in a culture of meritocracy that guides bonuses, salary increases and promotions. However, performance appraisals can actually mask gender-biased decisions where women are held to higher standards than their male colleagues [e.g., 83 , 84 , 95 , 160 , 161 ]. Women often have less opportunities to gain leadership experience and are less visible than their male colleagues, which constitute barriers to career advancement [e.g., 162 ]. Therefore, transparency and accountability, together with procedures that discourage discretionary choices, are paramount to achieve a fair career progression [e.g., 84 ], together with the relaxation of strict job boundaries in favor of cross-functional and self-directed tasks [e.g., 163 ].

In addition, a series of stereotypes about the type of leadership characteristics that are required for top management positions, which fit better with typical male and agentic attributes, are another key barrier to career advancement for women [e.g., 92 , 160 ].

Hiring is the entrance gateway for women into the workforce. Therefore, it is related to other workforce topics such as compensation , role , career progression , decision-making , human capital , performance , organization and education .

A first stream of literature focuses on the process leading up to candidates’ job applications, demonstrating that bias exists before positions are even opened, and it is perpetuated both by men and women through networking and gatekeeping practices [e.g., 164 , 165 ].

The hiring process itself is also subject to biases [ 166 ], for example gender-congruity bias that leads to men being preferred candidates in male-dominated sectors [e.g., 167 ], women being hired in positions with higher risk of failure [e.g., 168 ] and limited transparency and accountability afforded by written processes and procedures [e.g., 164 ] that all contribute to ascriptive inequality. In addition, providing incentives for evaluators to hire women may actually work to this end; however, this is not the case when supporting female candidates endangers higher-ranking male ones [ 169 ].

Another interesting perspective, instead, looks at top management teams’ composition and the effects on hiring practices, indicating that firms with more women in top management are less likely to lay off staff [e.g., 152 ].

Performance

Several scholars posed their attention towards women’s performance, its consequences [e.g., 170 , 171 ] and the implications of having women in decision-making positions [e.g., 18 , 19 ].

At the individual level, research focused on differences in educational and academic performance between women and men, especially referring to the gender gap in STEM fields [e.g., 171 ]. The presence of stereotype threats–that is the expectation that the members of a social group (e.g., women) “must deal with the possibility of being judged or treated stereotypically, or of doing something that would confirm the stereotype” [ 172 ]–affects women’s interested in STEM [e.g., 173 ], as well as their cognitive ability tests, penalizing them [e.g., 174 ]. A stronger gender identification enhances this gap [e.g., 175 ], whereas mentoring and role models can be used as solutions to this problem [e.g., 121 ]. Despite the negative effect of stereotype threats on girls’ performance [ 176 ], female and male students perform equally in mathematics and related subjects [e.g., 177 ]. Moreover, while individuals’ performance at school and university generally affects their achievements and the field in which they end up working, evidence reveals that performance in math or other scientific subjects does not explain why fewer women enter STEM working fields; rather this gap depends on other aspects, such as culture, past working experiences, or self-efficacy [e.g., 170 ]. Finally, scholars have highlighted the penalization that women face for their positive performance, for instance when they succeed in traditionally male areas [e.g., 178 ]. This penalization is explained by the violation of gender-stereotypic prescriptions [e.g., 179 , 180 ], that is having women well performing in agentic areas, which are typical associated to men. Performance penalization can thus be overcome by clearly conveying communal characteristics and behaviors [ 178 ].

Evidence has been provided on how the involvement of women in boards of directors and decision-making positions affects firms’ performance. Nevertheless, results are mixed, with some studies showing positive effects on financial [ 19 , 181 , 182 ] and corporate social performance [ 99 , 182 , 183 ]. Other studies maintain a negative association [e.g., 18 ], and other again mixed [e.g., 184 ] or non-significant association [e.g., 185 ]. Also with respect to the presence of a female CEO, mixed results emerged so far, with some researches demonstrating a positive effect on firm’s performance [e.g., 96 , 186 ], while other obtaining only a limited evidence of this relationship [e.g., 103 ] or a negative one [e.g., 187 ].

Finally, some studies have investigated whether and how women’s performance affects their hiring [e.g., 101 ] and career progression [e.g., 83 , 160 ]. For instance, academic performance leads to different returns in hiring for women and men. Specifically, high-achieving men are called back significantly more often than high-achieving women, which are penalized when they have a major in mathematics; this result depends on employers’ gendered standards for applicants [e.g., 101 ]. Once appointed, performance ratings are more strongly related to promotions for women than men, and promoted women typically show higher past performance ratings than those of promoted men. This suggesting that women are subject to stricter standards for promotion [e.g., 160 ].

Behavioral aspects related to gender follow two main streams of literature. The first examines female personality and behavior in the workplace, and their alignment with cultural expectations or stereotypes [e.g., 188 ] as well as their impacts on equality. There is a common bias that depicts women as less agentic than males. Certain characteristics, such as those more congruent with male behaviors–e.g., self-promotion [e.g., 189 ], negotiation skills [e.g., 190 ] and general agentic behavior [e.g., 191 ]–, are less accepted in women. However, characteristics such as individualism in women have been found to promote greater gender equality in society [ 192 ]. In addition, behaviors such as display of emotions [e.g., 193 ], which are stereotypically female, work against women’s acceptance in the workplace, requiring women to carefully moderate their behavior to avoid exclusion. A counter-intuitive result is that women and minorities, which are more marginalized in the workplace, tend to be better problem-solvers in innovation competitions due to their different knowledge bases [ 194 ].

The other side of the coin is examined in a parallel literature stream on behavior towards women in the workplace. As a result of biases, prejudices and stereotypes, women may experience adverse behavior from their colleagues, such as incivility and harassment, which undermine their well-being [e.g., 195 , 196 ]. Biases that go beyond gender, such as for overweight people, are also more strongly applied to women [ 197 ].

Organization

The role of women and gender bias in organizations has been studied from different perspectives, which mirror those presented in detail in the following sections. Specifically, most research highlighted the stereotypical view of leaders [e.g., 105 ] and the roles played by women within firms, for instance referring to presence in the board of directors [e.g., 18 , 90 , 91 ], appointment as CEOs [e.g., 16 ], or top executives [e.g., 93 ].

Scholars have investigated antecedents and consequences of the presence of women in these apical roles. On the one side they looked at hiring and career progression [e.g., 83 , 92 , 160 , 168 , 198 ], finding women typically disadvantaged with respect to their male counterparts. On the other side, they studied women’s leadership styles and influence on the firm’s decision-making [e.g., 152 , 154 , 155 , 199 ], with implications for performance [e.g., 18 , 19 , 96 ].

Human capital

Human capital is a transverse topic that touches upon many different aspects of female gender equality. As such, it has the most associations with other topics, starting with education as mentioned above, with career-related topics such as role , decision-making , hiring , career progression , performance , compensation , leadership and organization . Another topic with which there is a close connection is behavior . In general, human capital is approached both from the education standpoint but also from the perspective of social capital.

The behavioral aspect in human capital comprises research related to gender differences for example in cultural and religious beliefs that influence women’s attitudes and perceptions towards STEM subjects [ 142 , 200 – 202 ], towards employment [ 203 ] or towards environmental issues [ 150 , 204 ]. These cultural differences also emerge in the context of globalization which may accelerate gender equality in the workforce [ 205 , 206 ]. Gender differences also appear in behaviors such as motivation [ 207 ], and in negotiation [ 190 ], and have repercussions on women’s decision-making related to their careers. The so-called gender equality paradox sees women in countries with lower gender equality more likely to pursue studies and careers in STEM fields, whereas the gap in STEM enrollment widens as countries achieve greater equality in society [ 171 ].

Career progression is modeled by literature as a choice-process where personal preferences, culture and decision-making affect the chosen path and the outcomes. Some literature highlights how women tend to self-select into different professions than men, often due to stereotypes rather than actual ability to perform in these professions [ 142 , 144 ]. These stereotypes also affect the perceptions of female performance or the amount of human capital required to equal male performance [ 110 , 193 , 208 ], particularly for mothers [ 81 ]. It is therefore often assumed that women are better suited to less visible and less leadership -oriented roles [ 209 ]. Women also express differing preferences towards work-family balance, which affect whether and how they pursue human capital gains [ 210 ], and ultimately their career progression and salary .

On the other hand, men are often unaware of gendered processes and behaviors that they carry forward in their interactions and decision-making [ 211 , 212 ]. Therefore, initiatives aimed at increasing managers’ human capital –by raising awareness of gender disparities in their organizations and engaging them in diversity promotion–are essential steps to counter gender bias and segregation [ 213 ].

Emerging topics: Leadership and entrepreneurship

Among the emerging topics, the most pervasive one is women reaching leadership positions in the workforce and in society. This is still a rare occurrence for two main types of factors, on the one hand, bias and discrimination make it harder for women to access leadership positions [e.g., 214 – 216 ], on the other hand, the competitive nature and high pressure associated with leadership positions, coupled with the lack of women currently represented, reduce women’s desire to achieve them [e.g., 209 , 217 ]. Women are more effective leaders when they have access to education, resources and a diverse environment with representation [e.g., 218 , 219 ].

One sector where there is potential for women to carve out a leadership role is entrepreneurship . Although at the start of the millennium the discourse on entrepreneurship was found to be “discriminatory, gender-biased, ethnocentrically determined and ideologically controlled” [ 220 ], an increasing body of literature is studying how to stimulate female entrepreneurship as an alternative pathway to wealth, leadership and empowerment [e.g., 221 ]. Many barriers exist for women to access entrepreneurship, including the institutional and legal environment, social and cultural factors, access to knowledge and resources, and individual behavior [e.g., 222 , 223 ]. Education has been found to raise women’s entrepreneurial intentions [e.g., 224 ], although this effect is smaller than for men [e.g., 109 ]. In addition, increasing self-efficacy and risk-taking behavior constitute important success factors [e.g., 225 ].

Finally, the topic of sustainability is worth mentioning, as it is the primary objective of the SDGs and is closely associated with societal well-being. As society grapples with the effects of climate change and increasing depletion of natural resources, a narrative has emerged on women and their greater link to the environment [ 226 ]. Studies in developed countries have found some support for women leaders’ attention to sustainability issues in firms [e.g., 227 – 229 ], and smaller resource consumption by women [ 230 ]. At the same time, women will likely be more affected by the consequences of climate change [e.g., 230 ] but often lack the decision-making power to influence local decision-making on resource management and environmental policies [e.g., 231 ].

Research gaps and conclusions

Research on gender equality has advanced rapidly in the past decades, with a steady increase in publications, both in mainstream topics related to women in education and the workforce, and in emerging topics. Through a novel approach combining methods of text mining and social network analysis, we examined a comprehensive body of literature comprising 15,465 papers published between 2000 and mid 2021 on topics related to gender equality. We identified a set of 27 topics addressed by the literature and examined their connections.

At the highest level of abstraction, it is worth noting that papers abound on the identification of issues related to gender inequalities and imbalances in the workforce and in society. Literature has thoroughly examined the (unconscious) biases, barriers, stereotypes, and discriminatory behaviors that women are facing as a result of their gender. Instead, there are much fewer papers that discuss or demonstrate effective solutions to overcome gender bias [e.g., 121 , 143 , 145 , 163 , 194 , 213 , 232 ]. This is partly due to the relative ease in studying the status quo, as opposed to studying changes in the status quo. However, we observed a shift in the more recent years towards solution seeking in this domain, which we strongly encourage future researchers to focus on. In the future, we may focus on collecting and mapping pro-active contributions to gender studies, using additional Natural Language Processing techniques, able to measure the sentiment of scientific papers [ 43 ].

All of the mainstream topics identified in our literature review are closely related, and there is a wealth of insights looking at the intersection between issues such as education and career progression or human capital and role . However, emerging topics are worthy of being furtherly explored. It would be interesting to see more work on the topic of female entrepreneurship , exploring aspects such as education , personality , governance , management and leadership . For instance, how can education support female entrepreneurship? How can self-efficacy and risk-taking behaviors be taught or enhanced? What are the differences in managerial and governance styles of female entrepreneurs? Which personality traits are associated with successful entrepreneurs? Which traits are preferred by venture capitalists and funding bodies?

The emerging topic of sustainability also deserves further attention, as our society struggles with climate change and its consequences. It would be interesting to see more research on the intersection between sustainability and entrepreneurship , looking at how female entrepreneurs are tackling sustainability issues, examining both their business models and their company governance . In addition, scholars are suggested to dig deeper into the relationship between family values and behaviors.

Moreover, it would be relevant to understand how women’s networks (social capital), or the composition and structure of social networks involving both women and men, enable them to increase their remuneration and reach top corporate positions, participate in key decision-making bodies, and have a voice in communities. Furthermore, the achievement of gender equality might significantly change firm networks and ecosystems, with important implications for their performance and survival.

Similarly, research at the nexus of (corporate) governance , career progression , compensation and female empowerment could yield useful insights–for example discussing how enterprises, institutions and countries are managed and the impact for women and other minorities. Are there specific governance structures that favor diversity and inclusion?

Lastly, we foresee an emerging stream of research pertaining how the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic challenged women, especially in the workforce, by making gender biases more evident.

For our analysis, we considered a set of 15,465 articles downloaded from the Scopus database (which is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature). As we were interested in reviewing business and economics related gender studies, we only considered those papers published in journals listed in the Academic Journal Guide (AJG) 2018 ranking of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS). All the journals listed in this ranking are also indexed by Scopus. Therefore, looking at a single database (i.e., Scopus) should not be considered a limitation of our study. However, future research could consider different databases and inclusion criteria.

With our literature review, we offer researchers a comprehensive map of major gender-related research trends over the past twenty-two years. This can serve as a lens to look to the future, contributing to the achievement of SDG5. Researchers may use our study as a starting point to identify key themes addressed in the literature. In addition, our methodological approach–based on the use of the Semantic Brand Score and its webapp–could support scholars interested in reviewing other areas of research.

Supporting information

Acknowledgments.

The computing resources and the related technical support used for this work have been provided by CRESCO/ENEAGRID High Performance Computing infrastructure and its staff. CRESCO/ENEAGRID High Performance Computing infrastructure is funded by ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development and by Italian and European research programmes (see http://www.cresco.enea.it/english for information).

Funding Statement

P.B and F.C.: Grant of the Department of Energy, Systems, Territory and Construction of the University of Pisa (DESTEC) for the project “Measuring Gender Bias with Semantic Analysis: The Development of an Assessment Tool and its Application in the European Space Industry. P.B., F.C., A.F.C., P.R.: Grant of the Italian Association of Management Engineering (AiIG), “Misure di sostegno ai soci giovani AiIG” 2020, for the project “Gender Equality Through Data Intelligence (GEDI)”. F.C.: EU project ASSETs+ Project (Alliance for Strategic Skills addressing Emerging Technologies in Defence) EAC/A03/2018 - Erasmus+ programme, Sector Skills Alliances, Lot 3: Sector Skills Alliance for implementing a new strategic approach (Blueprint) to sectoral cooperation on skills G.A. NUMBER: 612678-EPP-1-2019-1-IT-EPPKA2-SSA-B.

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Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Men and women differ in their perception of gender bias in research institutions

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected] (JGG); [email protected] (MJS)

Affiliations Wom = n Equity & Research Committee, Society of Spanish Researchers in the United Kingdom (SRUK/CERU), International House, 12 Constance Street, London, United Kingdom, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, London, United Kingdom

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Wom = n Equity & Research Committee, Society of Spanish Researchers in the United Kingdom (SRUK/CERU), International House, 12 Constance Street, London, United Kingdom

Roles Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Wom = n Equity & Research Committee, Society of Spanish Researchers in the United Kingdom (SRUK/CERU), International House, 12 Constance Street, London, United Kingdom, Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience, Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom

• Judit García-González, 
• Patricia Forcén, 
• Maria Jimenez-Sanchez

• Published: December 5, 2019
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763
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There is extensive evidence of gender inequality in research leading to insufficient representation of women in leadership positions. Numbers revealing a gender gap in research are periodically reported by national and international institutions but data on perceptions of gender equality within the research community are scarce. In the present study, a questionnaire based on the British Athena Survey of Science, Engineering and Technology (ASSET 2016) was distributed among researchers working in Spain. Consistent with the original UK-based study, women in research perceived a greater degree of gender inequality than men. This difference was consistent from junior to senior positions, within public and private universities as well as research centres, and across all research disciplines. When responses were compared with the existing UK-based questionnaire, researchers in Spain felt that women and men are treated more equally in the workplace, yet they perceived their home departments to be less supportive regarding matters of gender equality. The results of this study provide clear evidence that men and women do not share the same perceptions of gender equality in science and that their differing perceptions are relatively consistent across two major European countries. The fact that men occupy the majority of senior positions while not perceiving the same inequality as women do, may be critical when it comes to ensuring the fair ascent of women to senior positions in an academic system. These data encourage the implementation of measures to ensure that both men and women are aware of gender biases in research.

Citation: García-González J, Forcén P, Jimenez-Sanchez M (2019) Men and women differ in their perception of gender bias in research institutions. PLoS ONE 14(12): e0225763. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763

Editor: Luís A. Nunes Amaral, Northwestern University, UNITED STATES

Received: April 28, 2019; Accepted: November 12, 2019; Published: December 5, 2019

Copyright: © 2019 García-González et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

Worldwide, women represent 53% of bachelor’s and master’s graduates. Parity drops at the PhD level (43% women vs 57% men) and even more at postgraduate level, where only 28% of research positions are occupied by women [ 1 ]. This gender gap is more noticeable at the senior level, with a lower representation of women in leadership positions and consequently in decision- and policy-making. She Figures 2015, a report that investigates gender equality in research and innovation in Europe [ 2 ], showed that only 21% of grade A, top-level researchers were women and, strikingly, numbers have not improved much from the 20% observed in 2010. In the Spanish academic system, the representation of women is nearly identical to that of the rest of the EU (40.8% vs 41.0%), and women occupy 21.0% of senior positions in Spain vs 20.9% in the EU [ 2 , 3 ].

Gender perceptions may influence women’s ascent to senior positions [ 4 ]. Women are perceived as worse scientific leaders [ 5 , 6 ] and are stereotyped as not possessing the innate talent that is required in some fields [ 7 ]. These and other gender stereotypes may explain why women receive similar levels of research funding when they are judged on the quality of their research but less funding when judged on the excellence of the researcher [ 8 ], are less frequently invited to conferences [ 9 , 10 ], are less likely to be selected for scientific awards [ 11 , 12 ], are less represented on editorial boards [ 13 ], their work is less likely to be cited [ 14 ], they have less chances of being invited to participate in peer review [ 14 , 15 ], and they have a more restricted access to influential networks [ 16 ]. In 2015, Handley et al reported that men do not recognise the presence of gender bias in research to the same extent as women: when men and women were asked to read an abstract from a study reporting gender bias in research, men tended to evaluate this study less favourable, suggesting reluctance of men to acknowledge gender bias. The gender difference was more prominent among academics working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) [ 17 ]. Moreover, many women’s choices of undergraduate discipline are dependent on the potential discrimination that is anticipated in each field [ 18 ]. A lack of understanding of these issues, especially at the senior level, will likely result in fewer measures put in place to tackle them. It is therefore necessary to understand how gender biases are perceived by researchers in their workplace, and, importantly, whether gender, seniority, research area and type of institution influence these perceptions. While reports are published periodically to evaluate the current gender situation in science and its evolution over the years [ 1 – 3 , 19 ], much less is known about researchers’ perceptions of gender equality.

The Athena Survey of Science, Engineering and Technology (ASSET) 2016 [ 20 ] was commissioned by The Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal Society of Biology and The Academy of Medical Sciences and managed by the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) [ 21 ] to assess experiences, expectations and perceptions in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) in academia in the United Kingdom (UK). The survey, which expanded from previous iterations of the survey, had 4,869 respondents and covered six aspects of British academics’ working life: perception of gender equality, recruitment, job and career, caring responsibilities, training and leadership, and promotion and development. On average, men felt that the department where they worked was more committed to gender equality than women did. Also, although differences were relatively small, women perceived that men had an advantage regarding the allocation of tasks and resources related to career development, while men’s perceptions on this topic were more neutral.

In Spain, while public organisations such as the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) and the Women and Science Unit of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities publish periodic reports of statistics regarding women in research [ 3 , 19 , 22 ], to the best of our knowledge, there has not been a formal assessment of perceptions on gender equality. Moreover, policies to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women have not yet being implemented systematically, in contrast to the UK, where charters such as Athena SWAN (Scientific Women's Academic Network) [ 23 ] have been active for more than ten years. The present study seeks to understand gender perceptions and experiences among researchers in Spanish academic institutions, and to compare these with the perceptions of researchers working in their British counterparts. A questionnaire with items adapted from the ASSET 2016 [ 20 ] ( S1 Table ) was distributed among researchers working in both public and private universities and public research institutes in Spain [ 24 ]. The effects of respondents’ gender, seniority, type of institution and research area on their perceptions of gender equality were systematically assessed, and the results of this survey were then compared with those of the ASSET 2016. Data from our survey show that men and women differ in the perceptions of gender equality and that findings are consistent across research areas, type of institutions and researchers’ positions. Our findings largely agree with those obtained from respondents in the UK, while highlighting differences in how researchers in Spain perceive less institutional support for gender-related issues.

Participants

A total of 2,619 individuals were contacted via email through their institutions or through the Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK (SRUK/CERU). Of these, we analysed the data provided by 2,255 respondents that were currently working in Spain and discarded the data from individuals that did not reach the end of the survey. To ensure that our sampling method did not introduce a non-response bias in our analyses, we compared responses from those that did not complete the survey with those that completed it and found no differences between them ( S2 Table for women and S3 Table for men). 10 individuals younger than 21 were discounted. While this survey included the opportunity for respondents to indicate that they would prefer not to disclose their gender (n = 11), the data presented are limited to those respondents who identified themselves as either men or women. The final sample for analysis contained 1,295 adults from 63 institutions (see S4 Table for a complete list of the institutions represented in the survey), of which 36% (n = 469) were men and 64% (n = 826) were women. For more details of the sample used in the study, see Table 1 and S1 Appendix .

Research ethics

The data in this study were analyzed anonymously. Data were collected through the website surveymonkey.com . At the beginning of the survey, all participants were informed about the purpose of the questionnaire and the anonymisation of their data. Responses were obtained between 5 February 2018 and 4 May 2018. Participants were given the option of not responding at each question. We only included data from participants older than 21 years old.

The present report is part of a wider survey to explore the perceptions and experiences of gender equality of academics working in STEMM, as well as in the arts, humanities, social sciences, business and law (AHSSBL) in Spain. Items included in the original survey were adapted from the Athena Survey of Science, Engineering and Technology (ASSET), managed by the Equality Challenge Unit [ 20 ]. The survey was circulated in English to ensure that the questions had the same meaning in both countries. In this study, only the responses relevant to the perception of gender biases were analysed. A description of the survey questions that were adapted from the ASSET survey and analysed in this study, their variable names and scales used is provided in S1 Table .

The measurement of gender equality in research is multidimensional. In this case, two dimensions of gender equality were explored: perceptions of gender equality in departments where respondents work and perceptions of gender equality in the allocation of tasks and resources . Perceptions of gender equality in departments were assessed using six statements such as “My department is committed to promoting gender equality” or “My department is (or would be) responsive to concerns about gender equality”. Each statement was rated using a 7-point scale ranging from 1 = “Strongly disagree” to 7 =“Strongly agree”. Perceptions of gender equality in the allocation of tasks and resources were assessed using 15 items, such as “Invitations to conferences”, “Appointments to editorships” or “Allocation of teaching”. Each item was evaluated using a 7-point scale ranging from 1 = “Much easier for a woman” to 7 = “Much easier for a man” ( S1 Table ).

We performed Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to confirm that the two previously-described dimensions of gender equality are present in the Spanish research system. PCA calculates the correlating variation among a set of observed variables (items) to identify underlying latent variables (dimensions/constructs) by obtaining the covariance matrix of the variables, and then its eigenvectors and the corresponding eigenvalues. Cronbach’s alpha [ 25 ] was used to examine the internal validity of the items for each component. To assess whether respondents’ gender had a significant effect on their perceptions of gender equality, independent samples t-tests were performed for each survey question and for the sum of all items within each dimension. Effect sizes were assessed using Cohen's d [ 26 ], where 0.2, 0.5, and 0.8 indicated a small, medium and large effect, respectively. To evaluate the effects of research area, position, type of institution, as well as the interaction between those and the respondents’ gender, two-way ANOVA tests were used (three ANOVA tests were run, one for each factor). Mean, standard deviation and sample sizes for male and female respondents in the UK were obtained from ASSET 2016 and t-tests were carried out separately to compare each question and gender group.

To account for multiple testing when exploring group differences between men and women, a Bonferroni correction was applied based on 21 independent t-tests (one for each question for the Spain based questionnaire) and significance was declared at a threshold of 0.002. For the comparison across countries, a Bonferroni correction was applied based on 38 independent t-tests (19 questions available in both countries stratified by male and female respondents). In this case significance was declared at a threshold of 0.001. Analyses were undertaken using Minitab v.17 and v.18 and R version 3.4.3.

To assess how researchers working in Spain perceive gender equality, a survey adapted from the ASSET 2016 in the UK, was distributed among researchers working in Spanish universities and research centres. A total of 1,295 complete responses were collected from 63 institutions, of which 36% (n = 469) were men and 64% (n = 826) were women. Respondents’ ages ranged between 21 and 66 or over and represented all stages of the research and academic ladder ( Table 1 ). The survey was composed of two categories: perceptions of gender equality in departments and perceptions of gender equality in the allocation of tasks and resources . We first confirmed the existence of two defined categories among the questions by performing a principal component analysis (PCA) and their internal reliability was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha. With Cronbach’s alpha values ranging from 0.7 to 0.9, we confirmed that the items within each component were closely related. These results are in line with the ASSET 2016 survey structure, ensuring a reliable comparison between both countries (see S2 Appendix in supporting information and S1 Fig for details on the psychometric analyses).

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.t001

We then assessed the impact that gender, position, research area and type of institution may have on perceptions of gender equality in the Spanish academic system. T-tests and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were used to assess the effect of these factors as well as the interaction between them and the respondents’ gender. In addition, responses were compared with those from the ASSET 2016 to investigate potential differences in perceptions across Spain and the UK.

Gender differences in perceptions of gender equality in departments

In the first part of the survey, a total of six items were used to evaluate how participants perceived gender equality in their departments in terms of (1) leadership (assessing how well women and men perceive women as leaders ( Fig 1A )), (2) equality treatment (assessing whether men and women are treated equally in their departments ( Fig 1B )), and (3) promotion of gender equality (investigating whether participants perceived that their departments have measures in place to promote gender equality ( Fig 1C )). Perceptions of gender equality in the respondents’ department was overall lower for women, with average score across the six items close to neutral ( M = 4.44, SD = 1.93) compared to men, who perceived their departments are somewhat committed to gender equality ( M = 5.18, SD = 2.13) ( p <0.002, S6 Table ). The distribution of responses for this category also showed that, despite the high variability in responses within each gender, most of men responses were 6 = ‘Agree’ and 7 = ‘Strongly agree’ (that there is gender equality in their departments), whereas women responses were more variable and a larger percentage of them failed to perceive gender equality (1 = ‘Strongly disagree’, 2 = ‘Disagree’ and 3 = ‘Somehow disagree’) ( Fig 1 ).

Graph shows the distribution of responses by gender where responses ranged from 1 = “Strongly disagree” to 7 = “Strongly agree”. The neutral value is 4 = “Neither agree nor disagree”. Sample sizes ranged from 1,287 to 1,293 respondents (n = 465 to 468 men and n = 821 to 826 women). Sample sizes for each question are detailed in S6 Table .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.g001

The largest gender differences were observed when participants were asked about leadership perception ( Fig 1A ). Although both women and men mostly agreed with the statement ‘Women are perceived as good leaders by women’, there was a slight shift in the distribution of responses towards a more negative perception by women ( M = 5.05, SD = 2.26) than men ( M = 5.40, SD = 1.76). The difference between women and men’s perception was more striking for the question “Women are perceived as good leaders by women ”, which showed that women felt that women’s leadership abilities are less recognised by men ( M = 4.03, SD = 1.88) ( p <0.002, S6 Table ).

When respondents were asked whether men and women receive equal treatment in their departments ( Fig 1B ), 87% of men agreed (strongly agree/agree/somehow agree). In contrast, women’s perceptions of equality were significantly lower and only a 69% agreed with that statement, while 25% of them strongly disagreed, disagreed or somehow disagreed with the equality of the treatment received. With an average of 6.05 ( SD = 1.41) for men versus 5.06 ( SD = 1.79) ( p <0.002, S6 Table ) for women, female researchers perceived less gender equality in the treatment provided by their departments.

To evaluate whether participants perceived that their departments have measures in place to promote gender equality, we used three items that included questions such as “I would know who to approach if I had concerns about gender equality” or “My department is responsive to concerns about gender equality” ( Fig 1C ). For both men and women, item means ranged between 3.90 ( SD = 2 . 15 ) and 5.07 ( SD = 1 . 90 ) (scores of 3, 4 and 5 correspond to “Somehow disagree”, “Neither agree nor disagree” and “Somehow agree”, respectively). For these three items, women perceived that their departments had significantly lower commitment to promote gender equality compared to men ( p <0.002, S6 Table ).

Overall, these results show that in the Spanish research system men have a more positive perception about their departments treatment and commitment to gender equality than women do. Importantly, we found that women felt they are not valued as good leaders by men.

Gender differences in perceptions of gender equality in the allocation of tasks and resources

To evaluate whether men and women perceive that the tasks and resources are equally allocated in their departments, 15 tasks and resources were assessed and stratified by: (1) allocation of markers of esteem ( Fig 2A ), (2) allocation of professional development resources ( Fig 2B ) and allocation of academic duties (3) ( Fig 2C ) ( S7 Table ).

Gender differences in perceptions of gender equality in the allocation of tasks and resources related to A) markers of esteem, B) professional development and C) additional professional duties. The item ‘Distribution of office/laboratory space or equipment’ refers to both A) markers of esteem and B) professional development. Graphs show distribution of responses by gender where responses ranged from 1 = “Much easier for a woman” to 7 = “Much easier for a man”. The neutral value is 4 = “Neither agree nor disagree”. See S4 Table for descriptive statistics and t-test results. Sample size ranged from n = 1,259 to 1,287 respondents (n = 455 to 467 men and n = 804 to 821 women). Sample sizes for each question are detailed in S7 Table .

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Compared to men, a larger percentage of women perceived that the recognition of intellectual contributions, invitations to conferences, distribution of office/laboratory space or equipment and appointments to editorships, all markers of esteem, are more easily allocated to men ( Fig 2A ), with mean scores between 4.01 ( SD = 2.07) and 4.88 ( SD = 1.43) ( S7 Table ). However, male respondents mostly rated the allocation of these resources as ‘the same for men and women’, with mean scores between 3.81 ( SD = 1 . 02) and 4.07 ( SD = 1 . 13 ) , Fig 2A and S7 Table).

Similarly, most of the men perceived that the allocation of resources related to professional development ( Fig 2B and S7 Table ) are allocated to men and women with similar ease ( M = 3.98, SD = 1.25). However, a larger proportion of female respondents felt that most of these resources are more easily allocated to men ( M = 4.75, SD = 1.46). Although these differences were subtle, they were statistically significant, with p<0.002 for all of the items individually and when considered together ( S7 Table ). The most noticeable differences were found when asked about promotion to senior posts or access to circles of influence (women: M = 5.29, SD = 1.57; men: M = 4.24, SD = 1.43; p<0.002, S7 Table ). Across all the items, the response distribution is markedly shifted between women and men. The percentage of women that think that it is slightly easier, easier or much easier for a man to get these resources ranged between 24 and 65%, in contrast to a smaller fraction of men with similar opinion, between 6 and 34%. For the different questions, between 50 and 84% of men perceived that professional development resources are distributed equally ( Fig 2 ).

The results above contrast with the findings in relation to the allocation of academic duties ( Fig 2C ). Both women and men perceived that pastoral care roles, or the support provided for the well-being of students and trainees, are allocated more easily to women and no significant differences between genders were observed for this category ( S7 Table ). They also agreed that the allocation of teaching is more equally distributed ( Fig 2C and S7 Table ). While there is a general perception that administrative tasks are more easily allocated to women, women perceived this more strongly (women: M = 3.25, SD = 1.42; men: M = 3.60; SD = 1.19. p <0.002, S7 Table ).

Altogether, gender differences were observed for the allocation of all the items referring to professional development and markers of esteem, where women perceived that these are more easily allocated to men while men did not perceive a biased distribution to the same extent. On the contrary, men and women perceived similarly that academic duties (teaching, pastoral care roles and administrative tasks), which are tasks not directly related to research performance, are distributed more easily to women.

Interaction of gender and research area in perceptions of gender equality

We next determined whether these gender differences may vary across research areas. Results from a two-way ANOVA for gender and research area suggested that overall women and men differences in gender perception were independent of the research discipline, as no gender-by-research area interaction was statistically significant ( S8 – S10 Tables). When we compared how researchers from different disciplines perceive gender equality in their workplace, we observed a significant main effect of research area only on the items “In general, men and women are treated equally in my department” and “Allocation of pastoral care roles”. Compared to other research areas, women working on law and earth sciences perceived the lowest gender equality regarding the treatment that men and women receive in their departments ( S2 Fig ). Researchers in the areas of maths and physical sciences are the ones perceiving that pastoral care roles are more easily allocated to women, with mean scores for both women and men of around 2 (i.e. “Easier for a woman”), while law had the most neutral perception, with mean scores above 3 (i.e. “Slightly easier for a woman”) ( S3 Fig ). It is worth noting that law and earth sciences are the research areas with the lowest responses and larger samples are needed to reach further conclusions.

Interaction of gender and position in perceptions of gender equality

To investigate the effect of seniority on perceptions of gender equality, we created four groups of positions according to their experience level ( Table 1 ): senior researcher, intermediate career researcher, early career researcher and research student. Gender and position were included as factors in a two-way ANOVA. Women’s estimates of gender equality were lower than those of men regardless of seniority, as the interaction between position and gender did not reach statistical significance for any item ( S11 – 13 Tables). Similar results were obtained when the interaction was done between age and gender ( S11 – 13 Tables). Only for the item “receiving positive feedback from management” the effect of gender differed by age ( S13 Table )

The only significant main effect of position was found on the items “If I had concerns about gender equality in my department, I would know who to approach” ( S4 Fig ), and “Appointment to editorships” and “Allocation of administrative tasks” ( S5 Fig ). For all three items, junior researchers perceived more gender biases in the allocation of these resources than researchers in more advanced positions.

Interaction of gender and type of centre in perceptions of gender equality

We observed that perceptions of gender equality in departments and in the allocation of tasks and resources were consistent across research centres, private and public universities. There were no significant main effects of type of centre, nor any interactions between gender and type of centre ( S14 – S16 Tables), suggesting that the previously-observed gender differences did not vary as a function of the institution where the respondents work.

Perceptions of gender equality in the Spanish and British academic systems

Overall, results from our survey and from the ASSET 2016 indicate that lower gender equality was perceived by women researchers working at both Spain and the UK. When all the items from the category perceptions of gender equality in the allocation of tasks and resources were considered together, we found no significant differences between countries ( S17 Table ). In contrast, when the six items for the category perceptions of gender equality in the department were jointly assessed, male and female researchers in the UK perceived greater gender equality than their counterparts in Spain. In both countries, men perceived higher equality in their departments than women, but country differences were consistent across genders with p <0.001 ( S17 Table ).

We then evaluated all the items individually and compared the responses from both surveys. Significant differences in perceptions between participants from Spain and the UK were observed for both genders ( p <0.001) in 13 items as per t-test ( S17 Table ). The largest differences were observed for items related to the support provided by the department and the allocation of teaching and pastoral tasks.

Relative to British respondents, researchers from Spanish institutions perceived greater equality in the treatment that men and women receive in their departments ( p <0.001, S17 Table ) ( Fig 3A ). Conversely, respondents from Spain perceived a lower level of support from their departments concerning issues of gender equality relative to their British counterparts, with p <0.001 for the three items ( Fig 3B–3D and S17 Table ).

Responses range from 1 = “Strongly disagree” to 7 = “Strongly agree”. The neutral value is 4 = “Neither agree nor disagree”. Spanish sample size ranged from 1,297 to 1,303 respondents (n = 467 to 468 men and n = 817 to 826 women). British sample size ranged from 4,804 to 4,862 respondents (n = from 2,466 to 2,491 men and n = from 2,338 to 2,372 women). Sample sizes for each question, country and gender are detailed in S17 Table .

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For perceptions of gender equality in the allocation of tasks and resources related to professional development, we observed that differences between Spain and the UK were driven almost exclusively by female respondents ( Fig 4 ). Women working as researchers in Spain perceived to a greater extent that it is easier for a man to be allocated tasks and resources related to professional development such as receiving positive feedback, receipt of mentoring for career decisions, promotion to senior posts, recruitment for academic posts, attention from senior management or access to informal circles of influence ( Fig 4 ). For all these items, significant differences between Spain and the UK were observed for female respondents, where the UK-based respondents perceived higher levels of equality compared to their Spanish counterparts ( p <0.001).

Responses range from 1 = “Much easier for women” to 7 = “Much easier for men”. Spanish sample size ranged from n = 1,279 to 1,287 (n = 46 to 470 men and n = 810 to 827 women). British sample size ranged from 4,814 to 4,824 respondents (n = from 2,467 to 2,477 men and n = from 2,342 to 2,349 women). Sample sizes for each question, country and gender are detailed in S17 Table .

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Women in Spain perceived greater inequality in the recognition of intellectual contributions than women in the UK did (p<0.001) ( Fig 5A ), while no significant differences were observed across countries for other markers of esteem such as invitation to conferences ( Fig 5B ). Conversely, male Spanish researchers perceived that editorships were more easily allocated to women than British researchers did (p<0.001) ( Fig 5C ) ( S17 Table ). Regarding the allocation of teaching, administrative tasks and pastoral roles, Spain-based researchers perceived that these roles are more easily allocated to women while in the UK these would be equally allocated to women and men ( p <0.001) ( Fig 5D–5F and S17 Table ). Interestingly, opposite directions in the gender effect were observed between countries for the allocation of administrative tasks and pastoral care roles ( Fig 5E–5F ).

Perceptions of gender equality in the allocation of tasks and resources in the Spanish and British academic systems: markers of esteem (A-C) and additional professional duties (D-F). Responses range from 1 = “Much easier for women” to 7 = “Much easier for men”. Spanish sample size ranged from n = 1,259 to 1,286 respondents (n = 455 to 466 men and n = 804 to 820 women). British sample size ranged from 4,722 to 4,813 respondents (n = from 2,433 to 2,476 men and n = from 2,289 to 2,346 women). Sample sizes for each question, country and gender are detailed in S17 Table .

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Despite reaching similar conclusions, both studies also highlight significant differences in gender perception among Spain and the UK. Some of these disparities may arise from inherent characteristics existing between research systems, however it may also underline areas where more work is required to promote gender equality.

The present study is the first one assessing perception of gender equality and comparing it across two major European countries. It provides clear and significant evidence that men and women have a different understanding of the gender gap in academia regardless of the country, research area, junior or senior position and type of academic institution. Our results show that women perceive greater gender inequality than men do and encourage the implementation of measures to increase awareness and address the problem.

Firstly, we evaluated perceptions of gender equality in a sample of 1,295 researchers working in academic positions in Spain. Estimates of gender equality were lower amongst women than men, with small to medium effect sizes, and the largest effect sizes being observed for items related to leadership. Previous research has revealed a systematic, unconscious gender bias that hinders women’s ascent to senior positions [ 8 – 16 , 27 , 28 ]. Despite the considerable body of objective scientific evidence, data from our survey shows that male researchers perceive equal gender treatment in their departments, equal access to the resources that are necessary for professional development or that can be viewed as markers of esteem and a stronger commitment from their departments to ensure gender equality. Data from our survey suggests that gender inequalities previously reported in the Spanish research system [ 3 , 19 , 22 ] are perceived by women researchers in their daily life in their departments but not by men to the same extent. To ensure a fair ascent of women in the academic ladder and fair allocation of resources, it seems necessary that those who occupy senior positions, who are mostly men, have a fair perception of gender inequality.

No significant interactions were observed between academic position or age and gender in our analyses, indicating that men and women of varying ages and seniority shared similar feelings regarding gender equality. Gender inequality has often been explained by a generational effect [ 29 , 30 ], and such an effect was widely cited by respondents when given the option to add comments in our survey (data not shown). These opinions are consistent with reports claiming that women in academia no longer face systematic discrimination [ 29 , 30 ]. However, contrary to this view, EU reports show only a modest increase in the number of women reaching senior positions in recent years [ 2 ], while in Spain, the proportion of women occupying senior positions did not change between 2012 and 2017 [ 3 , 19 ]. Results from this survey show that a generational change in perception, which is necessary to reach equality, is not happening in the new generations. Therefore, our data do not support a scenario where perception of gender bias will change over time without a need for intervention.

Our results agree to a large extent with those obtained in the ASSET 2016. Male researchers in both the UK and Spain perceived greater gender equality in their departments compared to female researchers. Interestingly, our analyses also highlighted some key differences in perceptions between the two countries, especially in perceptions related to gender equality in the workplace. While researchers in Spain felt that women and men are treated more equally in the workplace than researchers in the UK did, British departments were perceived as more committed, concerned and responsive to matters of gender equality. Overall perception on the allocation of tasks and resources was more similar between countries, but female respondents based in Spain perceived greater inequality regarding the allocation of resources related to professional development than the UK-based female respondents, while male respondents from both countries perceived no gender inequality. In the UK, the representation of women in the academic system (44.0%) is slightly higher than in Spain (41.0%) and in the EU average (40.8%) [ 2 ]. On the contrary, for the representation of women in senior positions, Spain does better, with 21.0% compared to only 17.5% in the UK, which is far from the EU average, 20.9% [ 2 ]. We could hypothesize that higher representation of women in senior positions results in greater perceptions of equality among researchers working in Spain. This contrasts with a more positive perception in terms of commitment and support at the workplace in the UK and the resources allocated to professional development.

The UK has been a pioneer in the implementation of awards to encourage and recognise commitment of the institutions to advance the careers of women, such as the Athena SWAN Awards, established by the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) in 2005. The differences that researchers in Spain and in the UK perceive in terms of institutional support and allocation of resources could be explained by the existence of these measures. Recent evaluations of this program have acknowledged that its implementation has resulted in structural and cultural changes as well as in an effort to advance gender equality in research institutions in the UK [ 31 – 33 ].

The observation of large country differences in the allocation of pastoral care roles and administrative tasks is of special interest. The allocation of these duties has been associated with high workload and low reward [ 34 ]. Therefore, some of these differences may arise from the inherent characteristics of both research systems, where the recognition of pastoral roles may not be equally valued. Initiatives such as Athena Swan in the UK, that recognize and value these roles, have potentially led to a more equal distribution in this country.

In the last few years, multiple countries have adopted policies to increment the participation of women in science and to foster their career progression. The Horizon 2020 programme in Europe has incorporated gender in its research and innovation strategy by promoting gender balance in research teams and in decision-making panels and advisory groups, as well as providing funds for initiatives that support gender balance [ 35 ]. In the US, the National Science Foundation has invested over $270M to help higher education and STEM-related organizations to support ADVANCE (Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions) projects that aim to increase the representation of women in science [ 36 ]. In the UK, the Athena SWAN Charter recognises the commitment of academic organisations to gender equality [ 23 ], in particular where active policies and specific programmes have been adopted. Gender bias influence decision-making [ 4 , 37 ], therefore how gender biases are perceived by those designing, implementing and assessing these and future measures is a critical aspect to take into consideration [ 38 , 39 ]. At the individual level, perceptions are likely to be shaped during childhood, and working with children to eliminate stereotypes may help eliminating women and men differences in perception from early on [ 40 ]. Studies in the social psychology field have shown that alerting about the existence of a certain bias, may reduce that bias [ 41 – 43 ]. Therefore, increasing self-awareness in adulthood through gender bias and unconscious bias workshops could also help shaping perceptions [ 44 ]. It is important to note, that identifying the source of bias is critical for an effective intervention [ 42 ] and that effective changes require more than a one-off diversity training [ 45 ]. More importantly, institutions need to put in place evidence-based, data-driven measures to ensure that perceptions do not have a negative impact in women’s careers progression [ 46 ]. Only by applying policy changes and action plans at multiple levels, we will be able to address and remove institutional, organisational, structural and systemic barriers to full gender equality in research.

The ASSET 2016 provided a valuable resource to evaluate perceptions of gender equality in British STEMM. The current survey represents a further attempt to robustly evaluate such perceptions in a representative sample from a different country, although it was limited by an unequal gender distribution, whereby there were twice as many female as male respondents. In addition, the survey was limited to researchers working in universities (public and private universities) and public research centres. Future efforts to better define policies that benefit the largest number of people should include initiatives that encourage the participation and support of men in gender equality surveys, as well as extending surveys to researchers in the private sector.

The present study represents the first formal comparison of men and women perceptions of gender equality between two European countries. Our data on the researchers based in Spanish institutions largely agree with the observations of the British ASSET 2016, while highlighting important differences in gender perceptions between the two research systems. This and future international surveys should aid the design and implementation of effective measures to drive a cultural change and to close the gender gap in research, by increasing our understanding of gender perceptions in academic environments.

Supporting information

S1 appendix. responses “perceptions in gender equality”..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s001

S2 Appendix. Psychometric properties of the survey.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s002

A) Loading plot of survey where first component is represented vs second component. B) Scree plot of the 21 items included in this analysis. As the number of components increases, the variance (within-group sum of squares) decreases. The elbow at two/three clusters represents the most parsimonious balance between minimum number of clusters that explain most of the variance.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s003

S2 Fig. Research area by gender interaction in the perception of gender equality in departments.

Item represented in the figure corresponds to “In general, men and women are treated equally in my department”. Graph shows means by gender ranging from 1 =“Strongly disagree” to 7 = “Strongly agree”. Sample size N = 1,293 (N = 468 men and N = 825 women).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s004

S3 Fig. Research area by gender interaction in the perception of gender equality in the allocation of pastoral care roles.

Figure represents the responses to perceptions of gender equality in the “allocation of pastoral care roles” and shows means by gender ranging from 1 =“Much easier for women” to 7 = “Much easier for men”. Sample size N = 1,259 (N = 455 men and N = 804 women).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s005

S4 Fig. Position by gender interaction in the perception of gender equality in departments.

Item represented in the figure corresponds to “If I had concerns about gender equality in my department, I would know who to approach” and shows means by gender ranging from 1 =“Strongly disagree” to 7 = “Strongly agree”. Sample size N = 1,291 (N = 468 men and N = 823 women).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s006

S5 Fig. Position by gender interaction in the perception of gender equality in the allocation of tasks and resources.

A) Appointments to editorships and B) Allocation of administrative tasks. Graph shows means by gender ranging from 1 =“Much easier for a woman” to 7 = “Much easier for a man”. Sample size N = 1,275 to 1,279 (N = from 462 to 463 men and N = from 813 to 816 women).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s007

S1 Table. Description of the questions in the survey and variable names.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s008

S2 Table. Comparison between responses from female participants that did not complete the survey (excluded respondents) and participants included in the analysis (respondents that completed the survey).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s009

S3 Table. Comparison between responses from male participants that did not complete the survey (excluded respondents) and participants included in the analysis (respondents that completed the survey).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s010

S4 Table. List of the institutions represented in the sample analysed.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s011

S5 Table. Cronbach alpha coefficients for each item and whole category.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s012

S6 Table. Descriptive and t-tests results for perceptions of gender equality in departments.

“sd” = standard deviation. “N” = sample size. “df” = degrees of freedom. “95CI” = 95% Confidence intervals.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s013

S7 Table. Descriptive and t-tests results for perceptions of gender equality in the allocation of tasks and resources.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s014

S8 Table. Research area variable names, sample size for each research area and gender distribution by research area.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s015

S9 Table. Interaction analysis of gender by research area in perceptions of gender equality in departments.

“Df” = degrees of freedom. “Sum Sq” = Total sum of squares. “Mean Sq” = Mean Squares.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s016

S10 Table. Interaction analysis of gender by research area in the perceptions of gender equality in the allocation of tasks and resources.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s017

S11 Table. Position variable names, sample size for each position and gender distribution by position.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s018

S12 Table. Interaction analysis of gender by position in the perceptions of gender equality in departments.

“Df” = degrees of freedom. “Sum Sq” = total sum of squares. “Mean Sq” = Mean Squares.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s019

S13 Table. Interaction of gender by position in the perceptions of gender equality in allocation of tasks and resources.

“Df” = degrees of freedom. “Sum Sq” = total sum of squares. “Mean Sq” = mean Squares.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s020

S14 Table. Type of institution variable names, sample size for each type of institution and gender distribution.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s021

S15 Table. Interaction analysis of gender by type of institution in the perceptions of gender equality in departments.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s022

S16 Table. Interaction analysis of gender by type of institution in the perceptions of gender equality in allocation of tasks and resources.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s023

S17 Table. Comparison of responses between Spain vs the United Kingdom-based researchers.

“N” = Sample size, “M” = mean, “SD” = Standard deviation, “df” = degrees of freedom. Note: The questions “women are perceived as good leaders by women/men” from the Spain based questionnaire are not reported in this analysis, as no equivalent questions were available in ASSET 2016. Significance declared at Bonferroni corrected threshold p = 0.001.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225763.s024

Acknowledgments

We thank all members of the Wom = n Equity & Research committee of SRUK/CERU—especially Diego Alonso and Nerea Irigoyen-, members of the Board of Directors of SRUK/CERU -especially Javier Escudero and Rocio Gaudioso- as well as David Pritchett, Caroline Brennan, Kristin Hadfield, Elke Vlemincx, Frederike Beyer, Eulalia Perez Sedeño and Pavel Ovseiko for reviewing the manuscript, helpful comments and discussion. We thank the Spanish universities, scientific societies and research institutes that distributed the survey, as well as all the researchers who took the time to complete it. This work was possible thanks to the previous work done in the ASSET 2016, and we thank Amanda Aldercotte from the Equality Challenge Unit for sharing data that enabled comparisons between our surveys.

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Example research paper on gender equality

The term ‘Gender Equality’ narrates the equal valuing of the different roles assumed by men and women. The theme strives to overcome stereotype barriers and prejudices so both men and women are capable of equally reaping benefits and contributing towards social, political, cultural and economic developments within society. When men and women enjoy equality, the direct outcome is an instant and stable growth in economy. The educated and healthy women in a society are more supportive and accommodating towards their families and nations. (Lorber, 2005)

Although men and women are dissimilar physically, but it is the economic, political, social and legal interpretation of such differences that ultimately lead to create inequality among them. In social inequality, men and women typically have different responsibilities and roles in their daily lives as well as work. It is anticipated that men seem to do much riskier and heavier work that is generally located away from their home. Work done by men seems to have much higher status as compared with women who have the major responsibility for child-care, elderly-care, preparing and managing food for their families.

Gender equality signifies a society in which men and women enjoy the similar opportunities, outcomes, obligations and rights in every sphere of life. Equality between women and men exist only when both sexes are capable of sharing mutually in the distribution of influence and power; have equal opportunities for monetary freedom through formation of businesses or work; enjoy equal and easy access to education and the prospects to develop own personal goals.

Inequality for Women

“Women and men are not created equal. They each have their God given strengths, focused on their responsibilities for procreation and family viability. Those differences are not easily dismissed… however those differences do not condone gender discrimination in society, and certainly not in the workplace.” (Malkin, 2005)

Women mostly have unequal access to health services and education, face glass ceiling at work place. Social customs that force or encourage girls into early child bearing and teenage marriages have dangerous and direct consequences for their health. There are much high levels of brutality and violence against women almost in all nations around the world. This could be among their families where it is treated a normal custom. Violence, in the span of armed conflict, is used to humiliate the rivals and also to undermine resistance and morale.

Economic inequality is directly related to the monetary and financial conditions of women. More than seventy percent of poor in the world are women, while the number of females living in poverty has significantly and disproportionately increased as compared with men. Women also have unequal access to major economic resources like credit, capital, land and labor. Restricted opportunities for career advancement and employment are available for women. These limitations restrict the capabilities of women to improve their monetary and economic scenario. (Zinn, 2005)

Women are not represented appropriately at all levels of governments’ decision making in community, but specifically at national and regional levels. The legal system in most of the countries discriminates particularly against women in the fields of inheritance, family law, land ownership, property, criminal law and citizenship. The prosecution of cases, in most of the countries, involving violence against women is difficult and complex.

The discrimination specifically against girls and women- including economic discrimination, gender-based violence, harmful conventional practices and reproductive health inequities- remains the most persistent and pervasive form of inequality. Moreover, girls and women bear extra hardship during, as well as, after conflict and different humanitarian emergencies.

Gender Equality- An Established Human Right

“Women make up roughly half the human population but are relatively marginalized compared with their male counterparts.” (http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/worldwide/gender/index_en.htm)

The gender equality has been accepted and acknowledged as human rights’ principles since the adoption of charter of United Nations in 1945. Most of the international agreements such as ‘the Millennium Development Goals (2000)’ and ‘the World Conference on Human Rights (1993) have highlighted and stressed the grave need for nations to take appropriate actions against such discriminatory practices.

Accomplishing the goal of gender equality requires both men and women to work jointly in sorting and hunting for the solutions, in the particular ways that encourage and support mutual trust and respect. The programs to ensure gender equality should address all types of violence against women, including trafficking in girls and women, promoting positive role of women in peace building and conflict scenarios. It should also be ensured that the issues of gender equality are effectively incorporated into infrastructure and governance activities.

Gender equality is the foremost and primary human right. Women are equally entitled to live in freedom as well as dignity form fear and from want. Empowering women is an effective tool for reducing poverty and advancing development. Empowered women are in a better position for contributing towards productivity and health of entire families as well as communities. They can also support in improving prospects specifically for the future generation. (Kramer, 2004)

Despite many agreements at international level affirming the human rights of women and ensuring the cause of gender equality, women are yet to be more likely, as compared with men, to be malnourished, poor and illiterate. They generally have a low level of access then men to property ownership, medical care, employment, credit and training. Their possibilities for being politically active are less than men. Moreover they are far more exposed to the domestic violence.

Empowering Women for Maintaining Gender Equality

The ability of women for controlling their fertility is entirely fundamental to the empowerment and equality of women. When a woman is healthy she is more productive. When women’s productive rights- including the basic right to plan birth timing along with spacing and to make critical decisions related to the coercion and reproduction- are protected and promoted, she has autonomy to participate equally in the society. A vital aspect of supporting the idea of gender equality is based on empowering women, with a prime focus on redressing and identifying power imbalances as well as giving more autonomy to organize their lives. Women empowerment is in fact critical not only to sustainable development but to the understanding of human rights for every one.

Society and Gender Equality

A prosperous and flourishing society means that women and men have equal opportunities for realizing their human rights. Men and women contribute mutually towards fulfilling the requirements of societal and cultural development. The societal and cultural development is directly linked with the political, national and economic development. The men and women must benefit equally in a society from the outcomes of that development. (Kramer, 2004)

However inequality severely restricts socio-economic development, specifically in the developing countries, where most of the women are the major food producers, primary teachers, gathers fuel and water, laborers and providers of health care in the informal economy. Sustainable development in a society is reliant on the equal contributions made by men and women. As such ensuring equal participation by women in the progress of their societies requires two major elements; equal ability to contribute as well as equal opportunity to perform such activities. The status of women in the major areas of society including education, health, decision making and access to resources must be improved. Premeditated efforts should be made to ensure that particularly women have a justifiable and equitable role towards shaping the societal growth. “Reducing gender inequalities implies benefits not only for women but also for men, children and the elderly, and for the poor as well as the rich.” (http://www.thecommonwealth.org/files/174543/file/IPCPovertyInFocus13.pdf).

“Despite many improvements in the status of women there are still many inequalities:

· Two thirds of people in the world who cannot read are female.

· Nearly seventy percent of the world's poorest people are female.

· Women represent a growing proportion of people living with HIV/AIDS.

· In only 16 countries in the world is women's representation in national parliaments above 25 percent.

· Women's contributions to the global economy are growing rapidly but their labor remains undervalued and undercounted in national accounts.

· An estimated one-quarter to one half of all women have suffered physical abuse.”

(http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go/pid/517)

Gender Issues being Addressed by HRM in Organizations

Human Resource Management represents effective and implementable solutions for the issues evolving from the inequality between men and women. The adoption of a practical HRM model in organizations present equal opportunities, specifically for personnel policy as the adoption of an HRM theme which signifies developing and valuing people in pursuit of goals and which stresses the individual’s role and the significance of involvement, provide opportunities for arguments about assessing all people.

The diversity in valuing people enables the promotion of gender equality to be associated with the accomplishment of business goals. The hypothesis that the rise of HRM is valuable for women, and also for gender equality requires immediate attention and action. This attention is critically needed as significant inequalities exist particularly in organizations reflecting on the progress of women into non-conventional areas of work.

Although significant progress has been made to ensure gender equality, still a lot of work is to be done. The HRM practices in an organization provide workable solutions. Particularly in the public sectors of most of the nations, due to its mission and anti discriminatory management along with provision of public services still remains a major issue. The debate is how to create circumstances in which men and women can accomplish their potential. (Wilson, 2003)

At the level of organizations, practices and policies relating to gender management are generally in the sphere of human resource management (HRM). It is pertinent to mention that HRM is viewed as strategic in the organizations; it specifically involves entire managerial personnel including general managers; it treats people as the most significant sole asset of the organization; it is purely proactive in its direct relationship with people; and it eagerly seeks to enhance the performance of companies, the societal well being and employees’ needs. A consistent concept of HRM literature is the creation and development of accountability to line managers for the purpose of managing human resource. (Wilson, 2003)

“Responsibility for the effective implementation of the Gender equality policy rests with the Head of each Department of office, supported by the senior management team.” (http://www.finance.gov.ie/documents/equality/Monitoring.doc.) Senior line management, in particular, is described as possessing “the locus of responsibility” for human resource matters. The line managers’ role is no longer limited to organizing and monitoring the delivery of services, but is developing in relation with HRM. It involves accomplishing the HRM policy objectives of commitment, flexibility, quality and eventually the effectiveness of subordinates. In the modern age, HRM managers are subject to, and more involved in novel practices in direct communications, selection, appraisal, target setting, training and development and motivation. (Kramer, 2004)

Development of responsibilities to HRM managers is a primary element in the recent concepts, related directly to diversity and equality management. Instead of concentrating on under-represented groups like females, managing diversity is primarily based on the theme that people should be rather valued as individuals for general reasons related to the interests of business as well as for social and moral reasons. Development of responsibility to HRM managers is emphasized when the issue is considered of who is actually responsible for implementing effectively the process of valuing entire individuals. This is a grave matter of concern for entire employees, particularly managers instead of being viewed as an issue related with only human resource practitioners.

In pursuit of such organizations that provide equality and fairness, which specifically ensures that both men and women fulfill their utmost potential, there are many issues surfacing from development of accountability to HRM managers, the first concerns HRM manager competence while managing people effectively. Insufficient training along with considerable strains of work has been mainly highlighted as characteristics restricting the level to which devolvement of human resource management is possible. The deficiency of managerial competence and capabilities rather than sexism or racism, could be the major cause of manager’s incapability to manage, diverse and fair group of people.

Another issue is whether or not to evaluate HRM manages on their effectiveness in assuring gender equality. Measurement could be a primary element with appropriate results and performance goals for accomplishing results. Moreover, equal opportunities goals for HRM managers could also be counter-productive and as such they should specifically be encouraged to set goals for themselves, focusing primarily on their managerial capability.

Challenges Faced by Human Resource Managers

To ensure equal and non-discriminatory treatment of both men and women is still a significant challenge confronted by the HRM managers in the organizations. In the area of managing diversity and HRM, there is much emphasis on delegated responsibility with line managers assuming the major role. Delegation and devolvement has some substantial resonance with the present pragmatic deliberations of the organizations where optimal resources are inadequate and central overheads are particularly subject to scrutiny. (Wilson, 2003)

However, devolving responsibility for the purpose of gender management raises some significant questions. The first is whether this symbolizes a significant opportunity to embed into cultures of organizations, managerial thinking, behavior and values of equality and fairness while addressing the gender issues which are the major aspiration for most of the organizations. Second is whether instead the removal of a supporter of equality, and the stress on line managers being primarily responsible for gender equality in the pursuit of their HRM duties, reveals the circumstances for abdication on behalf of individual managers.

Devolvement of gender management to HRM managers could present a significant opportunity for locating direct responsibility within the remit of most adequate people. Managers could confront many challenges while ensuring gender equality. It includes increasing activities of HRM, conflicting priorities, their deficiencies and lack of accountability regarding equality.

It is essential to search for the ways that could effectively address the issue of gender inequality and develop cultures in which gender equality is ensured. Every individual is free to make his/her optimum contribution. Delegation and devolvement of responsibility to HRM managers can play a vital role. However, it has the huge potential to represent the eventual choice from gender equality. Supportive continuous training, effective leadership, education for managers, vigilance for structure, communication strategies, outcomes and processes are inevitable ingredients to address the grave challenges of inequality present between men and women. (Wilson, 2003)

The vital and empirically-based assessment of HRM indicates a significant reality about the challenges faced by the HRM while managing gender equality. These include managerial control, increased surveillance and work intensification, weakening of mutual regulation and shifting of substantial risk to employees. Therefore, HRM promises such employment practices which can develop well-rewarded, well-trained, relatively secure, motivated, committed and empowered workforce, unbiased towards sexism and racism.

Examples of Current Applications

The HRM organizations are considered as high-commitment organizations. Behavioral and attitudinal commitment are applied to support and increase job performance and to check the rate of turnover, justifying entire investments made in highly trained, highly flexible and high quality employees. A wide range of personnel policies is also applied by the HRM managers to confront the challenges of gender inequality. These policies are directly linked with the employee involvement like communication, job design and leadership style. (Wilson, 2003)

Attention to ensure gender equality reflects a pure research-based cognizance that organization’s commitment towards resolving this issue is influenced by work and job experience rather than by gender or by personal features. For example, high level of gender equality exists in those organizations where job provides ample scope for self expression and responsibility. Socialization and selection are also viewed as significant aspects while applying the solutions to ensure gender equality. An important example of current application is the organization’s commitment towards gender equality measured by certain inputs such as visible hours and quality of achievement. The willingness and ability to work annualized hours is yet another significant example of current application.

Wilson, F. (2003) Organizational Behavior and Gender. Ashgate; 2Rev Ed Edition

External cooperation programs retrieved October 19, 2008 from

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/worldwide/gender/index_en.htm

Kramer, L. (2004) The Sociology of Gender: A Brief Introduction. Oxford University Press

Lorber, J. (2005) Gender Inequality: Feminist Theories and Politics. Oxford University Press

Malkin, S. (2005) Gender Bias, Gender Discrimination, Gender Equality .

Retrieved October 19, 2008, from

http://ezinearticles.com/?Gender-Bias,-Gender-Discrimination,-Gender-Equality&id=14755

Zinn, M. B. (2005) Gender Through the Prism of Difference. Oxford University Press

Gender Equality retrieved October 19, 2008 from

http://www.thecommonwealth.org/files/174543/file/IPCPovertyInFocus13.pdf.

Gender equality. Facts. Retrieved October 19, 2008, from

http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go/pid/517

Monitoring Gender Equality, Responsibility, Accountability & Monitoring, 2001 Retrieved

October 19, 2008 from

http://www.finance.gov.ie/documents/equality/Monitoring.doc.

• Open access
• Published: 01 November 2022

A qualitative study on gender inequality and gender-based violence in Nepal

• Pranab Dahal 1 ,
• Sunil Kumar Joshi 2 &
• Katarina Swahnberg 1  

BMC Public Health volume  22 , Article number:  2005 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

83k Accesses

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Metrics details

Gender inequality and violence are not mutually exclusive phenomena but complex loops affecting each other. Women in Nepal face several inequalities and violence. The causes are diverse, but most of these results are due to socially assigned lower positioning of women. The hierarchies based on power make women face subordination and violence in Nepal. The study aims to explore participants' understanding and experience to identify the status of inequality for women and how violence emerges as one of its consequences. Furthermore, it explores the causes of sex trafficking as an example of an outcome of inequality and violence.

The study formulated separate male and female groups using a purposive sampling method. The study used a multistage focus group discussion, where the same groups met at different intervals. Six focus group discussions, three times each with male and female groups, were conducted in a year. Thirty-six individuals, including sixteen males and twenty females, were involved in the discussions. The study used constructivist grounded theory for the data analysis.

The study participants identify that a power play between men and women reinforce inequality and increases the likelihood of violence for women. The findings suggest that the subjugation of women occurs due to practices based on gender differences, constricted life opportunities, and internalization of constructed differences among women. The study identifies that interpersonal and socio-cultural violence can result due to established differences between men and women. Sex trafficking, as an example of the outcome of inequality and violence, occurs due to the disadvantageous position of women compounded by poverty and illiteracy. The study has developed a concept of power-play which is identified as a cause and consequence of women's subordination and violence. This power play is found operative at various levels with social approval for men to use violence and maintain/produce inequality.

The theoretical concept of power play shows that there are inequitable power relations between men and women. The male-centric socio-cultural norms and practices have endowed men with privilege, power, and an opportunity to exploit women. This lowers the status of women and the power-play help to produce and sustain inequality. The power-play exposes women to violence and manifests itself as one of the worst expressions used by men.

Peer Review reports

Violence against women is identified as an attempt by men to maintain power and control over women [ 1 ] and is manifested as a form of structural inequality. This structural inequality is apparent with greater agency among men [ 2 ]. The differences between sexes are exhibited in the attainment of education and professional jobs, ownership of assets, the feminization of poverty, etc., and these differences increase the risk of violence towards women [ 3 ]. The global estimate identifies that thirty percent of women experience physical and/or sexual violence during their lifetime, illustrating the enormity of this problem [ 4 ]. From a feminist perspective, lending ideas of patriarchy [ 5 ] and gender performativity [ 6 ], the understanding of gender roles prescribed by male-dominated social structures and processes helps further explore the violence and abuse faced by women [ 7 ]. According to Heise [ 8 ], men who adhere to traditional, rigid, and misogynistic views on gender norms, attitudes, and behaviors are more likely to use violence towards women. The individual and collective attitudes of men toward different established gender norms, and their reproduction explain men’s use of violence toward women [ 9 ]. It is known that gender norms influence violence, but at the same time violence also directs and dictates gender performance with fear, sanction, and corrective measures for enacting respective prescribed gender functions [ 10 ].

It is difficult for women subjected to violence to enjoy legitimate rights, as most of the infringement of their rights and violence takes place inside a private sphere of the home [ 11 , 12 ]. Violence against women is the major cause of death and disability for women [ 13 ] and globally a major public health concern [ 14 ]. Establishing gender equality is fundamental for fostering justice and attaining sustainable development [ 15 ]; moreover, violence against women has to be acknowledged as a fundamental abuse of human rights [ 16 ]. A report on global violence has identified that violence against women exists at all levels of the family, community, and state. The report recommended the development of frameworks for respecting, protecting, and fulfilling women’s rights [ 17 ]. Fifteen years later, a review of the same identifies that violence continues with impunity, reaffirming violence as a major obstacle to the attainment of justice [ 18 ].

The inclusion of the gender lens to violence against women has provided more contextual evidence to explore these processes of violence. This requires the identification of unequal power relationships and an inquiry into the differences-producing various gender stereotypes [ 19 ]. This analysis of violence requires an understanding of behaviors that promote women’s subordination and factors that favor men to sustain these malpractices [ 8 ]. A closer look at the male-centric structural arrangements embedded in the social, political, and economic organization of life reveals that these structures provide lesser access and lower accountability toward women, promote systemic subordination, and create hierarchies, resulting in the increase of violence against women [ 20 ]. This unequal gender power relationship reinforced and manifested by social approval of men’s authority over women is found operative at multiple levels and helps to produce diversities of inequalities and violence [ 21 , 22 ].

The inequalities faced by women in Nepal majorly stem from socio-cultural, economic, and religious factors and influencers that define traditional roles and responsibilities between men and women [ 23 ]. The inequalities are more evident and pronounced in settings exhibiting prominent patriarchal norms restricting advantages and opportunities for the majority of women [ 24 ]. Women in Nepal are restricted inside their homes, have lesser access to life opportunities, and have limited or no involvement in decision-making on important issues directly affecting their lives [ 25 , 26 ]. Figures indicative of women’s inequalities in Nepal suggest that one-third of women have no education, fifty-two percent of women are involved in non-paid jobs, and women are less likely than men to own a home or land [ 27 ]. The men in Nepalese society are positioned higher and are expected to be the breadwinner and protectors of their families. Most of these men intend to earn respect and obedience from women and are socially expected to discipline women to achieve it [ 28 ]. Many societies across the world including Nepal, recognizes violence as a private affair requiring discussion only within a family. This has led to a serious underreporting of violence committed toward women in Nepal [ 29 ]. The national gender data in Nepal is scarce, the available Nepal Demographic Health Survey 2016 identifies that since the age of fifteen, twenty-two percent of women and seven percent of women experience physical and sexual violence, respectively in the past twelve months [ 27 ].

The contributing factors for violence against women in Nepal include the lower social status of women, illiteracy, economic dependency, patriarchal society, sex trafficking, alcohol-related abuse, dowry-related violence, infidelity, extramarital affairs of husband, unemployment, and denial of sex with husband [ 30 , 31 , 32 ]. Nepalese women have been repressing violence with silence due to the fear of breaking relationships, receiving less love and affection from family, fear of social norms by going against men, lack of faith in the justice system, and the threat of increased violence [ 33 ]. Women and girls in Nepal are sex trafficked to various countries. Sex trafficking in Nepal is prevalent due to persistent gender inequality, violence, stigma, and discriminatory socio-cultural structures; however, the actual extent of sex trafficking is still undetermined [ 17 , 34 , 35 ].

The recent trends in Nepal with the increasing number of out-migration of men for employment have provided women with temporary autonomy, and a shift in the gender roles. Earlier research has identified that migration of male spouses has provided a resistance to the power dynamics for women on the other hand it has limited their mobility, required them to share decision-making with household structures, face continued social vigilance on the money received from remittance, and get central attention with their personal sexual lives [ 36 , 37 ].

Morang district lies in the eastern region of Nepal. A district profile report based on a census survey [ 38 ] identifies that the place is inhabited by a close to a million population, out of which ethnic groups ( close to forty percent) live in the district with a majority (seventy-eight percent) of its population living in the rural areas. Tharu an ethnic group is one of the dominant population in the study area and all study participants for this study were from same Tharu population. A close to thirty-six percent of women in the district are illiterate and the average age of marriage is eighteen years. The report identifies that only twenty-three percent of women engage in economic activities apart from agricultural work and less than fourteen percent of women head the household. Almost eighty percent of the population in the district practice Hinduism.

This study is a part of a large intervention project and it was focused to establish a qualitative baseline of the gender status in the study area. This study aimed to explore participants’ experiences and understanding of gender inequality, violence against women, and information on sex trafficking in the Morang district of eastern Nepal. The selection of sex trafficking topic was motivated to assess the respondents’ general understanding of one of the consequences of inequality and violence faced by women. The study focused to explore factors that help to produce and sustain the practice of gender inequality and violence against women in the local community.

Participants

This study was part of a larger control-comparison project that used Forum Theatre interventions to promote gender equality, reduce violence against women, and increase awareness of sex trafficking [ 39 , 40 ]. The participants for the focus group discussion included the intervention population from one of the randomly sampled intervention sites. A multistage focus group discussion [ 41 ] was used involving the same participants discussing various emerging topics at different periods. The participants were recruited voluntarily during an earlier quantitative data collection for the project. The study used a purposive sampling method for the selection of participants. The local field staff at the study site facilitated the recruitment of the participants. The study formulated separate male and female groups. A total of six focus groups, three each with male and female groups were conducted over twelve months. Two inclusion criteria were set for participation. First, the participants had to be part of the population of the larger study. Secondly, they had to witness and/or participate in the Forum Theatre interventions conducted in between the study. The set inclusion criteria served a dual purpose of understanding the causes of inequality and violence and further helped to develop and determine the efficacy of participatory Forum Theater intervention for awareness-raising among the study intervention groups [ 39 ].

A total of thirty-six participants consisting of sixteen males and twenty females joined the discussions. The first discussion consisted of eight participants each from groups while the second and the third discussion missed two female and four male participants respectively. The majority of the participants were 20–29 years old. Tharu, an ethnic community of Nepal, is a dominant population in the study area, and all the participants belonged to the same Tharu community. Only one female participant was unmarried, and a single married male participated in the discussions. All participants were literate, with four males completing a bachelor's level of education. Seven female participants had education below the high school level. The nuclear family with parents and their children was the major family type identified in both male and female groups. Table 1 provides the detail of the participants.

The focus group discussions were conducted in January 2017, April–May 2017, and January 2018. The discussions were conducted in a place recommended by the participants. An isolated place in an open setting at the premise of a local temple was used for conducting all discussions. The participants were briefed about the objectives of the discussion and written consent was obtained for their participation. Verbal consent was taken for the audio recording of the discussions. Each participant was assigned a unique numerical code before the discussions to ensure anonymity during recording, note-taking, and analysis. The discussions averaged ninety minutes during each session. The discussions were conducted with the same participants and no new participants were added during the follow-ups. A single male and female participant were missing in the second follow up and two male participants missed the final follow-up. The reason for missing participants was due to their unavailability as they were out of the village due to personal reasons.

The discussions were conducted in the Nepali language. The first author moderated all six discussions, a support field staff member took the notes, and the last author observed the discussions. The audio recordings were translated into English, and the transcriptions were checked with the recordings to verify accuracy. The field and the discussion notes were used during various stages of data analysis. The notes provided information on the discussion setting, as well as the verbal and nonverbal expressions of the participants. The notes helped to assess the impressions, emphasis, and feelings of the participants during the discussions.

The discussions used pre-formulated discussion guides with open-ended questions on inequalities, gender practices, violence, and sex trafficking. The guiding questions were based on the theoretical premise of discrimination, patriarchy, oppression, hegemony, and participation of women. Three separate discussion guides were developed for each of discussions. The guides were developed by the first and last authors. Probing was done on several occasions during the discussion to gain more clarity on the issue. Cross-checking among the participants and between the groups was done to triangulate received information. Any topic deemed appropriate for discussions and/or any unclear issues identified during the initial data analysis came up subsequently in the discussion guide during the follow-ups.

Data analysis

This study used the constructivist grounded theory method. This method adheres to a constructivist philosophical approach wherein both researchers and participants mutually co-construct the meaning of a phenomenon [ 42 ]. This interaction is important since it helps to impart the meaning of shared experiences [ 42 ]. The constructivist grounded theory made it possible to (re) discover gender issues, important for both the researcher and the study participants. This method allowed the study to progress with responsiveness to emerging issues with an in-depth exploration of the identified issues. This clarity was achieved through repeated interactive discussions, analysis of explanations, and sharing of emergent findings with the study participants.

The audio recordings were translated and transcribed into English. Six transcripts from discussions were initially analyzed using a line-by-line coding process. The coding process helped with the fragmentation of data through interactive comparisons. Fifty-two initial codes such as gender differences, restricting women, alcohol-related violence, underreporting of sexual violence, coping, etc. were identified. The later stage of focused coding helped to achieve categorized data, providing logical sense to the developed initial codes. Three focused codes, namely, the subjugation of women, violence, and chasing dreams were formulated during the analysis. The abductive reasoning from the codes, memos, and discussion notes helped to develop the theoretical concept. The development of conceptual abstraction involved an iterative comparison of the data, codes, categories, memos, and discussion notes.

The constant communication between the authors during the stages of data analysis such as the formulation of codes, explanations of concepts, and categories helped to refine the analysis. The shared experiences of the participants and the description of the data collection and analysis included substantial details, enabling comparisons for future research and application to other similar contexts. The reliability of the study is warranted by the theoretical saturation [ 42 ] achieved by this study. This is supported by prolonged engagement with the study participants with communication on the emerging findings, and triangulation.

Reflexivity has a greater significance for the constructivist approach. The first and the second author of Nepalese origin were aware of the socio-cultural norms, stereotypes, values, and stigmas associated with gender in the local context. This helped the study to ascertain the depth of inquiry within the acceptable local normative limits. The non-Nepalese author, familiar with the study participants and Nepalese contexts, witnessed the discussions as an observer. The prior knowledge of the authors helped to critically assess different schemas, perspectives, and explanations shared by the participants. The universality of gender inequality and violence against women and its re-examination in the local context helped the authors to build upon existing knowledge by providing contextual explanations. The diversities among the authors and research participants established a basis for co-creating the perceived and observed realities.

The section below describes the participants’ perceptions and understanding of inequality and violence. The section contains subheadings that were derived as themes in the data analysis. The first theme subjugation of women; discusses how norms, beliefs, and practices produce inferior status and positions for women. The second theme domestic and gender violence; provides a narrative of interpersonal and socio-cultural violence present in the study area. The theme of chasing dreams; discusses the process of sex trafficking as an outcome of violence. The theoretically abstracted concept of power-play identifies the cause for the generation of power imbalance producing inequality and the use of violence by men.

Subjugation of women

The subjugation of women reflected practices and beliefs imparting positional differences for women and their social situation compared to men. The participants shared a common understanding that belief systems adhering to male supremacy have positioned women in a lower status. They provided examples of social practices of male supremacy such as males being considered as the carrier of a family name, legacy, and heritage, while women were referred to as someone else’s property. The socialization of the idea that girls will be married off to a husband and relocate themselves to their homes was identified as the major reason for instilling and perpetuating early gender differences. The participants mentioned that discriminatory practices and seclusion have situated women at the bottom rung of the gender hierarchy, establishing them as socially incompetent individuals or groups. Moreover, they inferred that selective preferences provided preparatory grounds for inequalities, and they remain attached to women throughout their lives. The participants provided examples of unequal access to education and life opportunities as a practice of selective preferences occurring in the community. They mentioned that socialization with these discriminatory beliefs and their practice helped to develop specialized gender roles from an early age. The participants provided an example of how gender intersected with mobility and resource generation in the community, it was clear from the discussions that this has restricted women inside homes but provided freedom and opportunities for men. A female participant expressed,

A woman from a poor family is more than willing to work and support her family. But she is not allowed by the men in the family to work outside of the home.

The participants informed that differences between the sexes were visible for women from a young age. Sharing practical examples from the community, the participants from both groups stated that girls received education mostly in low-cost government and community schools, while boys were enrolled in expensive private schools. They raised concerns that this selective investment for education, cited as the ‘building block of life’ by the participants, installed lesser capacity, and negotiating abilities in girls. A female participant stated,

There are differences in educational opportunities for boys and girls in our community. Family provides more support for a boy’s education by enrolling him in private schools, while a girl mostly gets her education in a community school together with engagement in household work.

The discussions revealed that women required several male anchors for their survival during their various stages of life. The participants provided examples of the shift of anchors for women which traversed from a father to a husband during marriage and later to the male child during her old age. They believed that this tradition of transferring women’s identity established men as a higher social category and stripped women of their individuality and identity. A male participant added,

Women have to remain dependent on men throughout their lives, first with their fathers and later with their husbands. They remain completely dependent as they are not economically active. This makes men believe that they have higher authority.

The female participants provided an example of marriage to illustrate how someone else’s decision-making had been affecting women’s lives. A participant explained that women were held responsible for household activities after marriage and any support for career progression or education was restricted despite her desire for its continuation. It was inferred that women had to drop their hopes and aspirations as the husband and his family made decisions for them. The female participants agreed that this continuous exposure to the ideas of male supremacy makes them start to believe and internalize the idea that women have lesser cognitive abilities and intelligence compared to men. A female participant stated,

Men and women certainly have different mental abilities. Men think and act differently often in a smart way compared to women.

The participants from both groups expressed that youth in the community were developing flexible attitudes and beliefs towards gender roles and responsibilities. They agreed that both young men and women were observed altering their roles and responsibilities shifting from traditional gender ideologies. The participants expressed that instilling these fluidity and flexible approaches in the older generation was impossible as they strictly followed traditional beliefs and practices. Few of the female participants admitted that at times young women also fail to accommodate the situation and reap benefits from available opportunities. The discussions revealed that a few of the women in the community received opportunities for independence and economic empowerment. These women had received entrepreneurial training and various skill development activities for sustaining livelihoods with practical skill-based training in tailoring, beautician, and doll-making. The female participants expressed that opportunities for independence and growth slipped away from them due to a lack of family support, financial constraints, and self-passivity. They explained that starting a business required approval from a family which was difficult to obtain. Moreover, if women made a self-decision to start up on their own, they lacked the initial capital and had to rely on men for obtaining resources. The participants further explained that the denial of men to support women were majorly due to the fear that norms of staying indoors for women will be breached and economic independence may enable women to have a similar financial footing as men. The participants stated that self-passivity in women emerged due to their engagement in household multiple roles, dependency upon males, and lack of decision-making power and abilities. A female participant summed it up by stating,

Some of us women in the community have received entrepreneurial skills training, but we have not been able to use our skills for our growth and development. Once the training finishes, we get back to our household chores and taking care of the children.

The female participants admitted that acceptance of belief systems requiring women to be docile, unseen, and unheard were the reasons for this self-passivity. The female participants resonated that the external controlling and unfavorable environment influenced by practices of discriminatory norms and beliefs developed self-passivity for women. A female participant expressed the cause and consequence of self-passivity as,

Women have inhibitions to speaking their minds; something stops us from making our position clear, making us lose all the time.

The discussions identified that gender norms were deeply engraved in various social interactions and daily life, and any deviance received strict criticism. The participants shared common examples of sanctions for women based on rigid norms like restrictive movements for women, social gossiping when women communicated with outsider men, prohibition for opinion giving in public, and lesser involvement during key decision-making at home. The participants shared that norms dictating gender roles were in place for both men and women with social sanctions and approval for their performance. A male discussion participant who occasionally got involved with cooking which was a so-called “women’s job” faced outright disapproval from his female relatives and neighbors. The male participant stated,

If I cook or get engaged in any household jobs, it is mostly females from the home and neighborhood who make fun of me and remind me that I am a man and that I should not be doing a woman’s job.

The foreign migration of youth looking for job opportunities has affected the Tharu community. It was known that a large number of men were absent from the community. The participants stated that women in such households with absent men had gained authority and control over resources, moreover, these women have been taking some of the men’s roles. The participants disclosed that these women had greater access and control over resources and were involved in the key decision-making positioning them in a relatively higher position compared to other women. It was known that this higher position for women came with a price, they were under higher social vigilance and at higher risk of abuse and violence due to the absence of ‘protective men’. It was known that women's foreign employment was associated with myths and sexist remarks. The participants shared that women had to face strict social criticisms and that their plans for livelihood and independence were related to an issue of sexual immorality and chastity. The participants from both groups strictly opposed the norms that associated women with sexual immorality but lamented that it continues. A male participant provided an insight into the social remarks received by women if she dares to go for foreign employment,

If a woman wants to go for a foreign job, she is considered to be of loose character. The idea that she is corrupt and will get involved in bad work will be her first impression of anyone.

Although the participant did not explicitly describe what bad work referred to as but it was inferred that he was relating it to sex work.

Domestic and gender violence

The participants identified violence as control, coercion, and use of force against someone will occurring due to unequal status. They primarily identified men as the perpetrators and women as the victims of violence. They explained that two types of violence were observed in the community. The first type occurred in an interpersonal relationship identified as physical, emotional, and sexual violence. The second type, as explained by the participants had its roots in socio-cultural belief systems. They provided examples of dowry exchange and witchcraft accusations for the latter type. The participants identified women as primary victims and listed both men and women as the perpetrators of both types of violence. They reported that physical violence against women by men under the influence of alcohol was the most commonly occurring violence in the community. The participants from both groups confirmed that wife-beating, verbal abuse, and quarrel frequently occurred in the community. It was known from discussions that alcohol consumption among men was widespread, and its cultural acceptance was also increasing episodes of violence. One of the female participants clarified further,

The most common violence occurring in our society is wife-beating by a husband under the influence of alcohol. We see it every day.

The participants reported the occurrence of sexual violence in the community but also pointed out that people refrained from discussing it considering it a taboo and private affair. The participants had hesitation to discuss freely on sexual violence. During the discussions, participants from both groups informed only of rape and attempted rape of women by men as sexual violence present in the community. Despite repeated probing, on several occasions, none of the participants from either group brought up issues and discussions about any other forms of sexual violence. Participants from both groups confirmed that stories about incidents of rape or attempted rape emerged only after cases were registered with the local police. The participants presumed that incidents of rape and attempted rape were not known to the wider community. A female participant stated,

Sexual violence does occur in our community, but people mostly do not report or disclose it, but they tend to keep it amongst themselves and their families.

The participants explained the identity of the rape perpetrator and victim. They identified the perpetrator as a rich, influential, and relatively powerful man from the community. The victim was portrayed as a poor and isolated woman which lesser social ties. It was known from the discussions that most of the rape cases in the community were settled with financial negotiations and monetary compensations for the victim rather than finding legal remedies. It can be inferred that the victimization of women intersects with gender, wealth, social stature, and affluence. The participants feared that this practice of settlement of rape with money could make rape a commodity available for the powerful, rich, and affluent men to exploit and victimize women. A male participant clarifies,

Recently, a man in his sixties raped a young girl near our village. The victim's family was ready to settle with monetary compensation offered by the rapist, but the involvement of the community stopped it and the rapist was handed over to the police.

The participants shared available coping mechanisms against violence practiced in the community by women. It was learned that the victim of household violence mostly used community consultation and police reporting to evade further violence. They divulged that community consultation and police reporting resulted in decisions in favor of victim women, directing abusive husbands to show decency and stop committing violence. The fear of legal repercussions such as spending time in police custody and getting charged under domestic violence cases was understood as the reasons for husbands to stop abuse and violence. The discussions revealed that women who file a formal complaint about their husband’s violent behavior could face an increased risk of violence. The participants disclosed that sharing such incidents publicly brought shame to some of the men and increased their anger, and often backlashed with increased violence. The participants in both groups stated that not all women in the community reported violence. They identified that women tend to be quiet despite facing continuous violence due to the fear of encountering more violence and to keeping their families together. A female participant clarifies,

Lodging public complaints against the abusive husband can sometimes escalate the violence. The husband’s anger for being humiliated in public must be faced by the woman inside the closed doors of the house with more violence and the men’s threat of abandoning the relationship.

The participants stated that socio-cultural violence against women in dowry-related cases was widespread and increasing. The dowry exchange was explained as a traditional practice with the family of the bride paying cash and kind to the groom's family. The participants clarified that the practice of dowry in the earlier days must have been an emergency fund for the newly wedded bride in a newer setting. According to the participants, the system of dowry has now developed and evolved as a practice of forced involuntary transfer of goods and cash demanded by the groom’s family. The discussions disclosed that the demands for dowry were increasing with time and failing to provide as promised immediately resulted in violence for the newly wedded bride. The participants described that dowry-related violence starts with taunts and progresses to withholding of food, verbal abuse, and finally, physical violence. They added that perpetrators of such violence were both men and women from the groom’s family. They stated that due to poverty not all bride families in the community were able to supply all demanded dowry which has exposed a large number of women to face dowry-related abuse and violence. The discussions also informed of a newer trend among girls by demanding goods during their wedding. It was shared that this new emerging trend had increased a two-fold financial burden on the bride’s family with heavy marriage debts. The male participants when questioned about the dowry demands cunningly shifted the responsibilities towards family and stated that it was not the groom but their families who were making such dowry demands. The discussions verified that dowry practice was so engraved in the community that it was impossible to even imagine a marriage without any dowry. A male participant reflected,

If I marry without any dowry, my family, neighbors, and all whom I know would consider that I am insane.

The participants also discussed and identified harmful traditional practices present in the community. The participants informed a common practice of accusing women of as witches existed in the community. It was mentioned that women faced witchcraft allegations in different situations. They provided examples of witchcraft allegations in common situations such as when someone’s cow stops producing milk when a child has a sore eye, when someone is bedridden due to sickness for days, or when a woman undergoes a miscarriage, etc. The participants stated that women accused of witch were always elderly/single women living in seclusion, poverty, and with fewer social ties. They also shared that the witch doctors, who ascertain whether a woman is a witch or not, were surprisingly mostly always men and hold higher status, respect, and social recognition. The consequences of being labeled as a witch, as explained by the participants, haunted victim women with torture, name-calling, social boycott, and extremes of physical violence. The participants informed that inhumane practices such as forceful feeding of human excreta prevailed during the witch cleansing sessions. A female participant explaining the witchcraft situation stated,

Witchcraft accusation is very real in our community; I know someone who has tortured his mother, citing reasons for his wife being childless. The old woman was called names, beaten, and later thrown out of the home.

The participants felt that men’s use of violence and its legitimization primarily existed due to gender hierarchy and internalization of the belief that violence was the best method to resolve any conflict. They inferred that men’s use of violence was further reinforced by women's acceptance and belief that violence had occurred due to their faults and carelessness. The female participants shared examples of common household situations that could result in an episode of violence such as women cooking distasteful food, failing to provide timely care to children and the elderly due to workload, and forgetting to clean rooms. These incidents make women believe that violence majorly occurred due to their mistakes. Furthermore, the participants believed that this self-blaming of the victim resulted due to constant exposure to violence and a non-negotiable social positioning of women for raising questions. The participants stated that beliefs instilled by religion increased the likelihood of victimization for women. They explained that religious practices and ideologies required women to refer to their husbands as godly figures, and a religious belief that anything said or done against husbands was a disgrace bringing sin upon her and family positioned women in an inferior position. A male participant added,

We belong to a culture where females worship their husbands as a god, and this might be an important reason for men to feel powerful as a god to exploit and abuse women.

The discussions put forward the idea that the existence of discriminatory beliefs, reinforcement of such beliefs, and a blind following of such practices produced differences and violence. The male participants acknowledged that the idea of male supremacy not only produced violence but also established a belief system that considered violence as an indispensable way to treat deviated women. One male participant stated this idea of male supremacy and privilege as,

The language of the feet is essential when words fail.

The participants also discussed violence committed toward men by women. The male participants burst into laughter when they stated that some men were beaten by their wives when they were drunk. The male participants admitted that intoxication reduced their strength and they got beaten. The female participants, on the other hand, assumed that women hit intoxicated men due to frustration and helplessness. They further clarified that the act of husband beating was a situational reaction towards men who had spent all of their daily earnings on alcohol. They stated that women with the responsibility to cook and feed family find themselves in an utterly helpless situation by the irresponsible drinking behavior of men. The male participants shared incidences of violence against men due to foreign migration. It was revealed in the discussions that some of the migrating men’s wives had run away with remitted money, abandoning marriage, and breaking up the family. The male participants identified this as a form of victimization of men, furthermore, the spreading of rumors and gossip caused emotional instability in those men. The female participants confirmed that some returning men failed to find their homes, property, money, and/or their wives. The discussion participants in both groups identified that this practice was on the rise in the community. It became apparent from the discussions that this increasing trend of women running away with the money and breaking away from family was a personal issue requiring social remedies.

Chasing dreams

The participants referred to sex trafficking as the exploitation of women, arising from poverty, illiteracy, and deceit. Explaining the causes of trafficking, the participants stated that women living in poverty, having dreams of prosperity and abundance were tricked by the traffickers making them victims of sex trafficking. The participants mentioned that women who had dreams larger than life and yearned for a comfortable and luxurious life in a short time were at a greater risk for sex trafficking. The participants from both groups resonated that the traffickers had been manipulating the dreams of poor women and deceiving them into trafficking. A female participant elaborated,

Women in poverty can be fooled easily with dreams. She can be tricked by a trafficker by saying I will find you employment with good pay abroad, and she gets into the trap easily.

A male participant further clarified,

Women readily fall into fraud and trickery shown by the traffickers who assure of luxurious life with foreign employment and this bait often leads to sex trafficking.

They identified that false hopes for foreign jobs were primarily used as an entry point by the traffickers to trap potential victims. Besides, they stated that some traffickers tricked women with false romantic relationships and marriages to win over their trust enabling traffickers to maneuver women as they wished.

It was identified that traffickers were not always strangers but known and familiar faces from the community, allowing the traffickers to gain the victim’s trust. The discussions divulged that traffickers strategically chose women who were less educated and poor. The participants explained that sex trafficking mostly occurred among women from a lower caste (the caste system is hierarchy-based in Hindu society which is determined by birth and unchangeable). They further explained that if one of these lower caste women went missing, it seldom raised any serious concerns in society, making these women easy targets for the traffickers. The discussions revealed that life for the survivors of sex trafficking was difficult. They identified that the survivor had to face strong stigmas and stereotypes which further increased their risk for re-victimization. The participants explained that the social acceptance of the trafficking survivors was minimal and finding a job for survival was very difficult. It was reported that social beliefs, norms, and practices were rigid for sex trafficking survivors and provided lesser opportunities for complete social integration. A female participant stated,

The story of a sex-trafficked woman does not end after her rescue. It is difficult for her to live in society, and this increases her chances of being a further victim.

The discussions in both groups highlighted that education and awareness were important for reducing sex trafficking. The participants felt that securing a livelihood for women was essential, but they identified it as a major challenge. The female participants recommended the use of education and awareness for reducing sex trafficking. They demanded effective legal actions and stringent enforcement of the law with maximum punishment for offending sex traffickers. They mentioned that the fear of law with maximum punishment for culprits could help decrease cases of trafficking.

The theoretical concept of power play

The discussions identified that gender inequality and violence against women occurred as men possessed and exercised greater authority. The participants explained that the authority emerging from male-centric beliefs was reinforced through established socio-cultural institutions. It was known that oppressive practices toward women in both public and private life have led to the domination and devaluation of women. The differences between men and women were known to be instilled by evoking discriminatory beliefs and due to internalization of them as fundamental truths by women which further helps to sustain these created differences.

The concept of power-play developed from the study has its roots in the belief systems and was found constantly used by men to maintain created differences. The power-play rise due to patriarchy, guiding discriminatory norms and unequal gender practices. These norms and practices in the canopy of patriarchy positions women inferior to men and impose control and restrictions. The power play possessed multi-dimensional effects on women such as creating further barriers, restricted life opportunities, the need for men-centered anchoring systems, and exclusion from the public arena. The power play gains its strength from the strict enforcement of stereotypical practices and committed adherence to gender performances. This leads to internalization of subordination as a natural occurrence by women. These further isolate women putting them into several non-negotiating positions. The power play at an individual level provides restrictive movement for women, barring them from quality education and other life opportunities, and is exhibited in alcohol-related assault and sexual violence. At the structural level, this power play limits women from economic opportunities, access to resources, and decision-making, and induces socio-cultural inequality exhibited in dowry and cases of witchcraft. The socio-cultural acceptance of power-play allows men to use violence as a misuse of power and use it as an effort to maintain authority. The use of power-play for committing violence was identified as the worst display of exercised power play.

Figure  1 describes the concept of power-play developed from the study. The power-play model is based on discussions and inferences made from data analysis. The model provides a description and explanation of how women are subjected to inequality and face violence. The concept of power play derives its strength from the subjugated status of women which are based on selective treatment, self-embodiment of inferiority, imposed restrictions and due to lesser life opportunities. The power play gain legitimacy through social approval of the status differences between men and women and through social systems and institutions majorly developed and favoring men. The status difference between men and women and its approval by developed social institutions and processes give rise to the concept of powerplay. It identifies that status differences allow men to gain and (mis)use power play not only to maintain differences but also enable men to use violence. The use of power-play exists at both interpersonal and cultural levels. Further, the model elaborates on influencers causing subjugation of women, display of power-play, and violence. The model identified that lodging public complaints and seeking legal remedies are the influencers that suppress violence against women. The influence of Forum Theater was perceived to have greater influence for victim, perpetrator, and bystanders. The influencers that aggravate violence are fear of further violence, the nature of the interpersonal relationship, alcohol-related abuse, and remaining silent especially on sexual violence. The cultural violence mentioned in the model refers to dowry and witchcraft-related violence and stands as systemic subordination. In the model, sex trafficking is depicted as one of the outcomes of inequality and violence faced by women majorly occurring due to deceit and fraud.

The theoretical concept of power-play developed in this study identifies that inequality produces violence and violence further reinforces inequality, creating a vicious circle. The power play situates hierarchy based on gender as the primary cause and identifies violence as an outcome of this power asymmetry. The authority to use power by men is received by social approval from embedded structures and institutions. The functioning of associated structures and norms is designed and run by men helping to perpetuate the dominance and subjugation of women. The study identifies that both interpersonal and socio-cultural violence emerges due to the positional differences and use of power. The study found that an element of control exists in interpersonal violence. The findings show that few victim women in the community took advantage of consultations and rely on the law to evade and /or cope during the occurrence of interpersonal violence. A large number of victims women however suffer silently as they are unable and unwilling to take a stand on violence due to their perceived positional differences and strict norms following. The study finds that violence originating from socio-cultural systems is widely accepted and no established means of control exists. The practice of heinous acts against a fellow human during witchcraft allegations and dowry exchanges is prohibited by the law of Nepal but is widespread. This situates that practices which are based on belief systems are more effective than prevailing national laws which try to stop them. Sex trafficking as a form of sexual violence use deceit and fraud against women. Poverty and illiteracy compel women to search for alternatives, and they become easy victims of sex trafficking when their dreams of a better life are manipulated by the traffickers. The false promise of a better life and highly paid job put women in a non-negotiating position with traffickers. The cherished dream of escaping the prevailing status-quo of oppression, subordination, violence, and poverty mesmerizes women to take risky decisions, falling into the risk and trap of sex trafficking.

The socio-cultural norms are the unwritten script of social operatives and functioning. These social norms function as codes of operation and are a major determinant for behavior and interactions between people [ 43 ]. The study has found that these norms were skewed, and most favored men, giving rise to status differences and producing inequalities for women. This is observed with lesser life opportunities, lower participation in decision-making, and a constant need to anchor women. This further helps men to maintain their hierarchical positional status and use violence. The subjugation of women does not occur in a linear process, it is influenced by the internalization of discrimination resulting in lower self-esteem, suppression, and domination of women based on norms and unequal practices. Earlier research has identified that norms and beliefs encourage men to control women, and direct them to use force to discipline women which increases the risk of violence occurrence [ 44 , 45 ]. An earlier study shows that traits of masculinity require men to become controlling, aggressive, and dominant over women to maintain status differences [ 46 ]. The study confirms that men upon receiving both normative and social approval for using violence against women can do so without hesitation.

Violence against women in Nepal mostly occurs inside the home and is only reported when it reaches higher levels of severity. The acceptance of violence as a private affair has restricted women from seeking support and discourages them from communicating their problems with outsiders [ 47 ] this increases more likelihood for men to use violence. The study finds issues related to sex and sexual violence is a taboo and are seldom reported. The study could only identify cases of sexual assault registered with the police and other cases known to the wider community as sexual violence. A community with known incidents of rape may have other cases of abuse, harassment, incest, forceful sexual contact, etc. Failure to report incidents of sexual violence infer that a large number of women could be suffering in silence. Earlier research identifies that increased stigmatization associated with sexual violence, and fear of seclusion cause reluctance in victims to report or seek support [ 48 ]. This silencing of victims provides men with greater sexual control over women [ 49 ] increasing more likelihood of use of violence. Gender-based inequality and violence intersect structures, institutions, and socio-cultural processes, making inequality and violence visible at all levels. The dowry-related violence and witchcraft allegation intersect interpersonal and structural violence. This cultural violence forces women to be a victim of lifelong abuse and trauma. The intersecting relationship between gender norms, social structures, and individual is so closely knitted that it produces varieties of inequality and violence at all levels [ 50 ]. Emotional violence in this study only emerged as a type of violence, during discussions in both groups. It did not emerge as a major concern for the participants except for dowry-related violence and violence against men. The intertwined nature of emotional violence and its occurrence with each abusive, exploitative, and violent situation may have influenced the participants understand it as a result, rather than as a specific type of violence.

The power play between sexes was found in synchronicity with the established norms and prevailing stereotypes, helping to perpetuate gender power imbalance. The gender system is influenced and governed by norms and the social arena becomes the site of its reproduction through the interaction and engagement of people. This interaction provides approval to the institutions and processes that are based on constructed differences between men and women [ 51 ]. The power, as identified by Fricker [ 52 ], controls a social group and operates and operates through the agent or established social structures. A man can actively use the vested power to either patronize and/or abuse women while passively women’s internalization of social settings and embedded norms can put them docile. The social controls as reported by Foucault [ 53 ] work with the embedded systems of internalization, discipline, and social monitoring and uses coercion rather than inflicting pain. The internalization of status differences among women as indicated by the study confirms this schema of social control. The dominance of men over women with patriarchal beliefs establishes the significance of male-centered kinship. This requires women to constantly anchor with men providing grounds for inequalities to perpetuate further. This idealizes men and reinforces the belief that women are non-existent without their presence. The requirement for male anchorage has an attachment to prevailing structural inequality. The family property and resources are mostly controlled by men and it usually transfers from father to son limiting inheritance to women [ 51 ]. These glorified idealizations of men's competence as described by Ridgeway [ 54 ] idealize men as individuals with abilities, status, power, and influences. The need for women to rely on men as anchors, fear of going against the norms and social sanctions explains the positional difference and show that men possess greater competencies. The internalization of men-centric superior beliefs by women occurs due to self-passivity and devalues women creating false impressions of their abilities. The gender roles and responsibilities were strict for both sexes but provided greater flexibility, privilege, and opportunity for men. Earlier studies in congruence with this study find that socio-cultural expectations limit women from deviation, and strictly adhere to their prescribed role and expectations [ 55 , 56 ] providing an upper hand to the men. The unequal social positioning of women, as defined by a few of the participants, can help define men's use of violence. As inferred by Kaufman [ 57 ], the disadvantageous position of women and support from the established structures enable men to use aggression and violence with considerable ease. The concept of power-play derived from this study also reflects that inequalities not only create hierarchies, putting women into a subordinating position but also legitimize norms of harmful masculinity and violence [ 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 ] creating a vicious cycle of inequality and violence. The concept of power-play developed by this study requires further exploration of gender relations, injustice, and patriarchy to identify multiple operatives of power with an outcome of inequality and violence.

Strengths and limitations of the study

The study followed the same participants over a period, which helped the study to achieve clarity on the topics through constant engagement. The data collection and the initial data analysis of the study were conducted by the same person, which reduced the risk of misrepresented findings. The study used follow-up discussions, which provided an opportunity to meet the participants again to resolve any ambiguities. The constant engagement with the participants helped to develop rapport and trust, which is essential to enable meaningful discussions. The study gathered rich data for developing the theory of power play in the Nepalese context. The study has attempted to explain the interplay of men’s use of power play, gender inequality, and violence against women, which, in itself, is a complex, but important issue. The study helped to develop a platform by identifying a level of awareness and needs for a Forum Theatre intervention study, a first of its kind in Nepal.

The major limitation of the study is that it was conducted with only one of the ethnic populations of Nepal; thus, the findings from this study cannot be generalized to a completely different setting. However, the transferability of the study is possible in a similar setting. The incidences of inequality and violence shared by the participants were self-reported, and no other means of verification were available to crosscheck those claims. The differences among the participants both in and between groups based on education and marital status might have influenced the study participants to understand, observe, and experience the phenomenon. The possibility of social desirability bias remains with the study, as a constant engagement with the study participants might have influenced them to answer differently. Furthermore, the discussions were conducted in groups, and participants might have had hesitation to bring up any opposing views. The study relied on collecting information on social norms and individual experiences and the perceptions of the study participants. It cannot be claimed that the study is devoid of any data rigidity as participants were free to choose what they wanted to share and express.

Study implications

The study explains gender practices, norms, violence against women, and sex trafficking in Nepal. The study helps to increase the understanding of how gender systems are operative in the daily lives of the Tharu community in the Morang district of Nepal. Future studies can explore the established linkages of interpersonal and socio-cultural violence. Like the complex link existing between gender inequality and violence against women, interpersonal violence and socio-cultural violence cannot be studied in isolation. The study provides an opportunity for future research on exploring how changing norms have been altering the position and victimization of women. The study finds that changing gender norms and responsibilities have, on the one hand, provided agency and empowerment for women, but on the other hand, they have also increased their risk of being a victim, an area that requires further exploration. The study has identified that constant engagement with the study participants through follow-up studies ensures the richness of data, which can be useful information for a future research study design. The study can be helpful for policy development, social activists, leaders, and researchers as it discusses prevalent gender oppressions and victimization, which need to be addressed. The findings from the study can be helpful for dialogue imitation and for designing intervention projects aimed at providing justice and equality to women.

The study identifies the presence of gender inequalities and violence against women in the study area. The positional differences based on norms, institutions, and practices have assigned greater privileges to men. The concept of power-play devised by the study ascertains the maintenance of gender hierarchy to produce inequality further and victimization of women. The subjugation of women based on the social-cultural process, embedded belief systems, and norms prevent women from life opportunities and dignified life. It situates men at the highest rung of the gender and social ladder providing a comparative advantage for men to use power. Violence emerges as men’s use of power play and as a strategy for the continued subjugation of women. Sex trafficking as a consequence of inequality and violence has its origins in illiteracy and poverty with women falling prey to the deceit of traffickers. It is important that dreams for progression provide motivation for women to develop further but at the same time, dreams should not be exchanged with trickery and fraud offered by the traffickers. Awareness and attitudinal changes are imperative to challenge unequal norms, and practices, and reduce the risks of sex trafficking. This can help to develop negotiations for power-sharing which helps to reduce inequality, violence, and preparedness in chasing dreams. Changes at both individual and societal levels are necessary to develop a collective action for establishing belief systems and practices providing women with an equal position and reducing the risk of violence.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to all the focus group discussion participants. The authors are indebted to Bhojraj Sharma, Deekshya Chaudhary, Subham Chaudhary, and Dev Kala Dhungana for their coordination and facilitation in reaching the discussion participants.

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PD, SKJ, and KS were involved in the study design. PD and KS developed the discussion guides. PD was responsible for the data collection and the data analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Dahal, P., Joshi, S.K. & Swahnberg, K. A qualitative study on gender inequality and gender-based violence in Nepal. BMC Public Health 22 , 2005 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-14389-x

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Institutional Gender Equality Work and Its Challenges: Taking the Example of Lower Saxony and the University of Vechta

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• Christina Plath 5 ,
• Tanja Meyer 6 &
• Henriette Ullmann 7  

The practice of gender equality at German universities is undergoing immense changes, as are the universities themselves. The substantial changes to the academic system throughout Europe (e.g., the Bologna reforms, an increasing focus on economic principles, etc.) have led to new challenges and aggravating insecurities that particularly affect institutional mechanisms advancing and preserving gender equality. The universities find themselves in a neoliberal competition for funding, and thus are competing with each other in university rankings and for excellent scientists. Gender equality work and diversity (management) have become an integral part of academic service and play a vital part in fulfilling target agreements with the state ministries, as well as in the successfully acquisition of funding to obtain research and personnel. Taking the University of Vechta (Lower Saxony, Germany) as an example, the contribution analyzes the specific challenges and opportunities for institutional academic gender equality work. It discusses both the legal framework providing structure and boundaries to the practice of gender equality, as well as the potential of current theoretical concepts and their limitations. Lastly, it addresses scope for action and conditions of success for shaping a more gender-sensitive, diverse, and inclusive academic environment.

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In Germany, responsibility for higher education institutions lies with the German federal states. For this reason, this article focuses on the specific higher education legislation in the Federal State of Lower Saxony.

In the version dated February 26th 2007 (Lower Saxony Legal Gazette, Nds.GVBl. no.5/2007, p. 69), last amended on December 16th 2021.

https://www.uni-vechta.de/en/universitaet/profile/figures-and-data (accessed on January 12th 2023).

All texts deriving from the NHG Act were translated from German by the authors.

See Section 42(1) NHG.

In the version dated September 29th 2020 (Federal Law Gazette (BGBl) I p. 2048).

Heteronormativity refers to the belief in gender binarity, as well as heterosexuality as the norm. It assumes two opposing and sexually or romantically-related genders, which are either male/man or female/woman and can be determined at birth (see Hark 2009 ).

An ongoing debate surrounds the term and the social concept of “race” in Germany (see Auma 2020 ). Since there is no equivalent to the term in German, nor is there a related reflexive-critical debate as in the USA and other countries, an alternative term is taken in the contribution instead of the term currently used in the Basic Law.

See footnote 8.

Exceptions exist in a few instances within the AGG Act, for example in Section 3(1), which links women, pregnancy, and maternity, and thus contradicts a queer feminist understanding of gender.

For criticism of the AGG Act, see, e.g., ADA Bremen, https://www.ada-bremen.de/bildung/was-ist-das-agg/ (accessed on January 26th 2022).

The AGG Act only protects students if they are in an employment relationship with the respective university, for example as a student assistant. The protection then relates exclusively to this employment and not to discrimination in the context of courses and examination situations.

In the version dated November 17th 2011.

See, among others, Section 22(3) PStG in the version dated March 28th 2021.

Black is not a trait, but a social position. As a political self-designation of Black people to reflect a shared culture and history as part of the African diaspora, Black is capitalized in this paper. See https://www.goethe.de/prj/one/en/aco/art/22106961.html#4 (accessed on February 24th 2022).

In addition to centralized structures, German universities also have decentralized gender equality work. However, this is organized individually in the universities and there are large differences.

See https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/stabsstelle+/476233.html (accessed on January 19th 2022).

See https://www.chancenvielfalt.uni-hannover.de/ (accessed on January 19th 2022).

See https://www.leuphana.de/services/gleichstellung.html (accessed on January 19th 2022).

See https://www.hbk-bs.de/hochschule/organisation/beauftragte/gleichstellungsbeauftragte/ (accessed on January 19th 2022).

See https://uol.de/gleichstellungsstelle (accessed on February second 2022).

E.g., University of Oldenburg, Vice President for Early Career Researchers, Equal Opportunities and Diversity, see https://uol.de/en/chair/vp-n (accessed on February second 2022).

See for example, the “Shaping Diversity” (Vielfalt gestalten) audit ( https://www.stifterverband.org/ , accessed on January 31st 2022), as well as the “Family-Friendly University Audit” (audit familiengerechte hochschule) ( https://www.berufundfamilie.de/auditierung-unternehmen-institutionen-hochschule/audit-fgh ; accessed on January 31st 2022).

See footnote 23.

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5 Powerful Essays Advocating for Gender Equality

Gender equality – which becomes reality when all genders are treated fairly and allowed equal opportunities –  is a complicated human rights issue for every country in the world. Recent statistics are sobering. According to the World Economic Forum, it will take 108 years to achieve gender parity . The biggest gaps are found in political empowerment and economics. Also, there are currently just six countries that give women and men equal legal work rights. Generally, women are only given ¾ of the rights given to men. To learn more about how gender equality is measured, how it affects both women and men, and what can be done, here are five essays making a fair point.

Take a free course on Gender Equality offered by top universities!

“Countries With Less Gender Equity Have More Women In STEM — Huh?” – Adam Mastroianni and Dakota McCoy

This essay from two Harvard PhD candidates (Mastroianni in psychology and McCoy in biology) takes a closer look at a recent study that showed that in countries with lower gender equity, more women are in STEM. The study’s researchers suggested that this is because women are actually especially interested in STEM fields, and because they are given more choice in Western countries, they go with different careers. Mastroianni and McCoy disagree.

They argue the research actually shows that cultural attitudes and discrimination are impacting women’s interests, and that bias and discrimination is present even in countries with better gender equality. The problem may lie in the Gender Gap Index (GGI), which tracks factors like wage disparity and government representation. To learn why there’s more women in STEM from countries with less gender equality, a more nuanced and complex approach is needed.

“Men’s health is better, too, in countries with more gender equality” – Liz Plank

When it comes to discussions about gender equality, it isn’t uncommon for someone in the room to say, “What about the men?” Achieving gender equality has been difficult because of the underlying belief that giving women more rights and freedom somehow takes rights away from men. The reality, however, is that gender equality is good for everyone. In Liz Plank’s essay, which is an adaption from her book For the Love of Men: A Vision for Mindful Masculinity, she explores how in Iceland, the #1 ranked country for gender equality, men live longer. Plank lays out the research for why this is, revealing that men who hold “traditional” ideas about masculinity are more likely to die by suicide and suffer worse health. Anxiety about being the only financial provider plays a big role in this, so in countries where women are allowed education and equal earning power, men don’t shoulder the burden alone.

Liz Plank is an author and award-winning journalist with Vox, where she works as a senior producer and political correspondent. In 2015, Forbes named her one of their “30 Under 30” in the Media category. She’s focused on feminist issues throughout her career.

“China’s #MeToo Moment” –  Jiayang Fan

Some of the most visible examples of gender inequality and discrimination comes from “Me Too” stories. Women are coming forward in huge numbers relating how they’ve been harassed and abused by men who have power over them. Most of the time, established systems protect these men from accountability. In this article from Jiayang Fan, a New Yorker staff writer, we get a look at what’s happening in China.

The essay opens with a story from a PhD student inspired by the United States’ Me Too movement to open up about her experience with an academic adviser. Her story led to more accusations against the adviser, and he was eventually dismissed. This is a rare victory, because as Fan says, China employs a more rigid system of patriarchy and hierarchy. There aren’t clear definitions or laws surrounding sexual harassment. Activists are charting unfamiliar territory, which this essay explores.

“Men built this system. No wonder gender equality remains as far off as ever.” – Ellie Mae O’Hagan

Freelance journalist Ellie Mae O’Hagan (whose book The New Normal is scheduled for a May 2020 release) is discouraged that gender equality is so many years away. She argues that it’s because the global system of power at its core is broken.  Even when women are in power, which is proportionally rare on a global scale, they deal with a system built by the patriarchy. O’Hagan’s essay lays out ideas for how to fix what’s fundamentally flawed, so gender equality can become a reality.

Ideas include investing in welfare; reducing gender-based violence (which is mostly men committing violence against women); and strengthening trade unions and improving work conditions. With a system that’s not designed to put women down, the world can finally achieve gender equality.

“Invisibility of Race in Gender Pay Gap Discussions” – Bonnie Chu

The gender pay gap has been a pressing issue for many years in the United States, but most discussions miss the factor of race. In this concise essay, Senior Contributor Bonnie Chu examines the reality, writing that within the gender pay gap, there’s other gaps when it comes to black, Native American, and Latina women. Asian-American women, on the other hand, are paid 85 cents for every dollar. This data is extremely important and should be present in discussions about the gender pay gap. It reminds us that when it comes to gender equality, there’s other factors at play, like racism.

Bonnie Chu is a gender equality advocate and a Forbes 30 Under 30 social entrepreneur. She’s the founder and CEO of Lensational, which empowers women through photography, and the Managing Director of The Social Investment Consultancy.

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About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

82 Gender Equality Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best gender equality topic ideas & essay examples, 💡 most interesting gender equality topics to write about, ❓ gender equality essay questions.

• Gender Equality in Higher Education: The Underrepresentation of Women in Educational Leadership A prime example of gender inequality is the underrepresentation of women in educational leadership, and this problem is going to be considered here in detail.
• Gender Inequality in Workplace Gender is the main reason for inequalities in the workplace; this is because nowadays there is a steady increase in the number of women in workplaces in the world.
• Sociological perspectives of Gender Inequality The events taking place in the modern world and the occurrence of the feminist movements during the past few decades can be used to offer a deeper understanding on the subject of gender inequality and […]
• SDGs – Equality Education and Gender Equality The quality of education for girls can affect their employment and their ability to support themselves financially. With a good education, women have a larger range of jobs to choose from and the opportunity to […]
• The Progress of Gender Equality The key achievements have been the removal of all forms of discrimination against women, the promotion of legal literacy, education, and the general protection of the rights of women.
• Gender Equality in the Laing O’Rourke Company The construction industry in the UK has been in a steady decline for from 2011 to 2016, with its fall culminating in autumn, when Carillion, one of the largest construction company in the region, disintegrated.
• Gender Equality and Development Despite the progress of the last century on ensuring the equal rights for both genders, there are still issues that have to be addressed by the global society.
• Gender Equality and Title IX The function of Title IX is to guarantee gender equality in college sports and it has supported the development of female sports.
• The Discussion of Concepts of Gender Equality In the article, the author presents such concepts as violence, harm, empowerment, freedom, and universal care from the point of view of capitalism, liberalism, and feminism to reach the point of gender equality.
• Gender Equality in Children’s Perception Despite the variety of achievements made on the subject in different parts of the world, the general tendency leads society toward accepting the idea of equality between men and women.
• Title IX: Gender Equality in Education Education provides opportunities for developing the abilities of girls and boys, women and men to participate in the social, economic, and political life of the state and is the basis for the development of a […]
• Gender Equality as Target of Social Work As far as health care is concerned, the primary issue of gender inequality addresses the issue of access to the services and the quality of care provided.
• Naomi Osaka’s Case of Gender Equality in Sports The recent case of retirement by Naomi Osaka is a prime example of how gender roles and racism in sports can affect even the best athletes making sports an important discussion in the context of […]
• Creating a Culture of Gender Equality in the Workplace This proposal will consider the existing gender inequality within the field of architecture and propose several changes an architecture firm should undertake to create a culture of gender equality.
• Gender Equality: Definition, Challenges Over the decades, society viewed the female gender as an inferior sect in the community hence the emergent issues of imbalance in the system.
• Female Criminality and Gender Equality The present paper considers this theory by exploring the differences in treatment of females in the United States and Nigeria and assessing their impact on female criminality in the two countries.
• Media and ICT Industries Gender Equality Initiatives Therefore, the inability to use media and social networks to build a business is a serious obstacle to the development of women’s entrepreneurship in less developed countries.
• Empowering Gender Equality in the United Arab Emirates Workforce The objective of the paper is to track changes in gender equality policies, especially concerning the equal representation of all women in the country’s workforce.
• Gender Equality in Finland and the U.S. Legal Situation: discuss the laws regarding general gender equality and the representation of women in positions of political power. Political Situation: analyze the current political landscape in the United States as well as Finland and […]
• The Women’s Movement and Gender Equality: ERA Opponents of the ERA argue that it is redundant due to the already existing Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
• Private Clubs and Gender Equality In the clubs, members of the society get opportunity to pursue their goals and interests collectively and for the benefit of all.
• Women in Developing Countries: Globalization, Liberalization, and Gender Equality Owing to issues of gender, the voices of women in developing countries are never heard when it comes to the creation of trade agreements and policies or in their negotiations.
• Feminism and Support of Gender Equality Nowadays, it involves advocacy and a set of activities aimed to protect the rights of a plethora of discriminated groups, including LGBT community members and racial minorities.
• Gender Equality in Sweden and America The parental leave is extended to fathers, and the government strives to maintain a fair gender proportion in the top positions in public agencies.
• Social and Gender Equality Ideals and Theories According to Friedrich, there is no need of elevating the selfish desires of the human race in the pretext of democracy or hot pursuit for gender equality. However, the equality of outcome tends to be […]
• Gender Equality Issues in the Workplace Environment Hence, the gathering of information to validate the allegations is central to the resolution of the gender issue in the case study.
• Gender Equality: Plan to Address the Issue The vice president of administration and finance should use a powerful plan to address the issues affecting the institution. To begin with, I will use a powerful plan to address the issues affecting different female […]
• Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality Concepts According to Georgellis and Sankae, the Theory of Gender Role emerged out of the consistent work of different psychologists who were interested in explaining the differences between men and women from a socio-economic angle.
• Male Nurses and Gender Equality in the Workplace The research will go further to examine how the concept of gender equality in the nursing working environment can address the problem of the nursing shortage.
• Gender Equality and Its Development Another important indication of the progress is the creation of UN Women, which addressed the known shortcomings of the global women’s rights movements, such as barriers to funding and lack of centralized effort aimed at […]
• The Question of Gender Equality: Scott vs. Terrall The paper also answers the question of gender equality, in terms of the standing of women in scientific society, and explains why the arguments of both authors are valid and provide a useful insight into […]
• Developing a Culture of Gender Equality by Awadhi The author is one of the modern and educated women in the UAE, which provides evidence of her ability to develop an article describing the state of women in the country.
• Gender Equality: Women Leadership in Financial Sector The primary purpose of the study is to assess the effectiveness of various GE tools in the context of the financial sector in the US.
• Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment by Gemechu Ogato The article “The Quest for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in the least Developed Countries” presents a macro work. The ideas presented in this article will guide more societies and governments to identify better policies […]
• Gender Equality and Globalization’ Issues Since the world policies adopt a new progressive direction, the idea of gender equality enters the category of the ultimate Millennium development goals.
• The Struggle for Gender Equality Before going any further it is crucial to emphasize the pitfalls when it comes to asserting the rights of women when it comes to the need for similar treatment in comparison to men.
• Mary Wollstonecraft’s Achievements in Struggles for Gender Equality First wave feminists advocated for women to be granted the right to vote in the U.S. Their persistent pressure made the U.S.government to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment of 1920, which granted women the right to […]
• Global Inequalities: Are they Gendered? Due to the presence of multiple programs in the developed world that have helped to empower women there, the number of poor women has not been increasing there as fast as in the developing world.
• Gender Equality: Male Dominance The simple reason is that gender inequality exists in affluent societies wherein women are free to do what they want, have access to education, and have the capacity to create wealth.
• Gender inequality in Algeria The fact that women helped to build back the ruins of society and the heroism they showed in the war efforts, was forgotten by their husbands and the government.
• Tunisia’s Gender Equality These people feel that the government should advance democracy in this country, and Muslims should be taught the importance of following the law of the country, for the good of all people.
• Gender inequality in Canada According to, although it is certain that men and women have actual differences particularly physically, most of the social indifference perception are not because of the biological connotation but because of the over time cultural […]
• Scholars Comment on Gender Equality Aristotle argument that men are superior to women probably might not have led to the interpretation that male dominance in the rule of society to be as a result of women being inferior rather it’s […]
• Inequality as a Gender Issue in the Workplace However, at the turn of the 20th century there was a rapid wave of social change that began to recognize and appreciate the role of a woman as an equal contributor to society, therefore, women […]
• Chaucer and Sophocles Views on Gender Equality The Status of Women during this Period Beforehand, women were perceived as inferior and lived according to the rules stipulated to guide the family settings, making them lack a sense of identity in the society.
• Gender Inequality in the US Of more importance in the enhancement of gender inequality is the role of the media. The natural constrains described above and the multiplier effects from the historical insubordination of women still play to men’s favor […]
• Gender Equality in the United States, China and Egypt Thus the role of education is to help boost gender equality in various aspect of the society, including employment sector, politics and contribution in economic development.
• Are Women Important in Gulf Politics? What are the Main Barriers to Gender Equality? Although this is the case, still many organizations that fights against such discriminations have been in the frontline in ensuring countries within this region accept the importance of women participation in all spheres of development.
• What Is Gender Equality?
• Does Gender Equality Exist?
• Why Is Gender Equality Ruining Everyone’s Happiness?
• How Are Organizations Assessing Gender Equality Within?
• Why Is Gender Equality Higher in Developed Countries? Is Equality the Cause or the Result of the Development?
• Can Certified-Tea Value Chains Deliver Gender Equality in Tanzania?
• How Has the Appearance of Various Affordable Birth Control Methods Contributed to the Establishment of Gender Equality in Modern Society?
• Does Increased Gender Equality Lead to a Convergence of Health Outcomes for Men and Women?
• How Has Gender Equality Been Bridged in Sports in American Colleges and Universities?
• Does the Climate-Smart Village Approach Influence Gender Equality in Farming Households?
• How Does the Religion Help Maya to Fight for Gender Equality in Society in America?
• Can Mobile Phones Improve Gender Equality and Nutrition?
• Does the Media Hinder the Cause for Gender Equality?
• How Does Gender Inequality Hinder Our Society From Progress?
• What Social Problems Does Gender Inequality Cause?
• Can Private Food Standards Promote Gender Equality in the Small Farm Sector?
• What Factors Might Encourage Organizations to Adopt Gender Equality Initiatives?
• Why Have Some Feminists Criticised the Idea of Gender Equality?
• How Can Young People Fix Gender Equality Issues?
• Will Sex Education at Schools Contribute to the Development of Gender Equality?
• Does Society or a Person Define Gender?
• Can Culturally Sanction Gender Roles Hurt Adolescents’ Mental Health?
• Who or What Defines the Concepts of “Masculinity” and “Femininity” in Modern Society?
• Should the Rules of Etiquette Be Changed Because They’ve Been Created in the Epoch of Total Patriarchy?
• Are Gender Stereotypes Based on the Difference Between Men’s and Women’s Brains Justified?
• Would Humanity Be More Developed Today if Gender Stereotypes Never Exited?
• Can a Woman Be a Good Politician? Why or Why Not?
• What Are the Main Arguments of Antifeminists? Are They Justified?
• Would Our Society Be Better if More Women Were in Power?
• How Do Gender Stereotypes in the Sports Industry Influence the Careers of Athletes?
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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Social Inequality — Gender Equality

Essays on Gender Equality

Gender equality essay topics and outline examples, essay title 1: striving for gender equality: challenges, progress, and future perspectives.

Thesis Statement: This essay explores the global journey toward achieving gender equality, examining the persistent challenges, the significant progress made, and the potential future directions for advancing the cause of gender equality in all aspects of life.

• Introduction
• The Gender Equality Agenda: Goals and Key Principles
• Obstacles to Equality: Discrimination, Stereotypes, and Institutional Barriers
• Progress in Education and the Workforce: Breaking Down Gender Norms
• Gender-Based Violence: Combating Domestic Violence and Harassment
• Global Initiatives: UN Sustainable Development Goals and International Agreements
• Empowering Women: Leadership, Political Participation, and Economic Empowerment
• Future Prospects: Technology, Education, and the Role of Men in Promoting Equality
• Conclusion: The Ongoing Struggle and Hope for a Gender-Equal World

Essay Title 2: The Intersection of Gender and Social Justice: Exploring the Interconnected Struggles

Thesis Statement: This essay delves into the intersectionality of gender and social justice, examining how gender inequality intersects with other forms of discrimination and how addressing these interconnected struggles is crucial for achieving a more just and equitable society.

• Understanding Intersectionality: Overlapping Forms of Discrimination
• Race and Gender: The Experiences of Women of Color
• Gender, Socioeconomic Status, and the Wealth Gap
• Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation: LGBTQ+ Rights and Inclusion
• Disability and Gender: Challenges Faced by Disabled Individuals
• Intersectional Activism: Movements and Advocacy for Equity
• Building Inclusive Communities: Strategies for a More Just Society
• Conclusion: The Urgent Need for Intersectional Approaches to Gender Equality

Essay Title 3: Gender Equality in the Workplace: Breaking Down Barriers and Promoting Inclusivity

Thesis Statement: This essay focuses on the realm of the workplace, addressing the challenges women face in achieving gender equality, examining diversity and inclusion initiatives, and highlighting the benefits of gender-balanced organizations.

• The Gender Wage Gap: Causes, Consequences, and Progress
• Workplace Discrimination: Stereotypes, Bias, and Microaggressions
• Women in Leadership: Breaking the Glass Ceiling and Achieving Parity
• Diversity and Inclusion: Strategies for Creating Gender-Equal Workplaces
• Legal Protections: Labor Laws and Policies to Address Gender Discrimination
• Corporate Responsibility: The Role of Businesses in Advancing Equality
• Measuring Success: Metrics for Gender Equality in the Workplace
• Conclusion: The Imperative of Gender Equality in the Professional World

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Each Man and Woman Should Have Equal Rights

Why gender equality is still not achieved, not a feminist but a female ‘equalist’, gender equality and income level, the importance of gender equality for sustainable future, gender equality as a matter of social justice, gender equality issues in the aviation industry, why iceland ranks first for gender equality, the major gender equality debates, the issue of gender equality: a review of literature, the different factors hindering the achievement of gender equality in society, the effect of gender equality on present and future of youngest generation of women, gender equality and sexual harassment issue, the future of gender equality in the workplace, the quest for gender equality and women's challenge in world leader opportunities, feminism and its effect on society, the worldwide issue of women's equality, conformity, equal rights, and same-sex attraction as depicted in f. scott fitzgerald's book the great gatsby, the issue of gender rights in the philippines, positive and negative sides of feminism.

Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing different behaviors, aspirations and needs equally, regardless of gender.

In 2015 there were only 21 female heads of state in the entire world. Over 150 countries have at least one actively sexist law. In most countries, women only earn between 60 and 75% of men’s wages - for the same work. There are approximately 781 million illiterate adults worldwide – two-thirds of whom are women.

1. Gupta, G. R., Oomman, N., Grown, C., Conn, K., Hawkes, S., Shawar, Y. R., ... & Darmstadt, G. L. (2019). Gender equality and gender norms: framing the opportunities for health. The Lancet, 393(10190), 2550-2562. (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)30651-8/fulltext) 2. Inglehart, R., Norris, P., & Welzel, C. (2003). Gender equality and democracy. In Human values and social change (pp. 91-115). Brill. (https://brill.com/display/book/9789047404361/B9789047404361_s007.xml) 3. Pascall, G., & Lewis, J. (2004). Emerging gender regimes and policies for gender equality in a wider Europe. Journal of social policy, 33(3), 373-394. (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-social-policy/article/abs/emerging-gender-regimes-and-policies-for-gender-equality-in-a-wider-europe/620412A9D1716CC48259C59F9BA95364) 4. Walby, S. (2004). The European Union and gender equality: Emergent varieties of gender regime. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 11(1), 4-29. (https://academic.oup.com/sp/article-abstract/11/1/4/1654404) 5. Carli, L. L. (2020). Women, gender equality and COVID-19. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 35(7/8), 647-655. (https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/GM-07-2020-0236/full/html) 6. Kabeer, N., & Natali, L. (2013). Gender equality and economic growth: Is there a win‐win?. IDS Working Papers, 2013(417), 1-58. (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.2040-0209.2013.00417.x) 7. Falk, A., & Hermle, J. (2018). Relationship of gender differences in preferences to economic development and gender equality. Science, 362(6412), eaas9899. (https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.aas9899) 8. Breda, T., Jouini, E., Napp, C., & Thebault, G. (2020). Gender stereotypes can explain the gender-equality paradox. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(49), 31063-31069. (https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2008704117) 9. David, M. E. (2015). Women and gender equality in higher education?. Education Sciences, 5(1), 10-25. (https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/5/1/10)

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Gender Equality Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on gender equality essay.

Equality or non-discrimination is that state where every individual gets equal opportunities and rights. Every individual of the society yearns for equal status, opportunity, and rights. However, it is a general observation that there exists lots of discrimination between humans. Discrimination exists because of cultural differences, geographical differences, and gender. Inequality based on gender is a concern that is prevalent in the entire world.  Even in the 21 st century, across globe men and women do not enjoy equal privileges. Gender equality means providing equal opportunities to both men and women in political, economic, education and health aspects.

Importance of Gender Equality

A nation can progress and attain higher development growth only when both men and women are entitled to equal opportunities. Women in the society are often cornered and are refrained from getting equal rights as men to health, education, decision-making and economic independence in terms of wages.

The social structure that prevails since long in such a way that girls do not get equal opportunities as men. Women generally are the caregivers in the family. Because of this, women are mostly involved in household activities. There is lesser participation of women in higher education, decision-making roles, and leadership roles. This gender disparity is a hindrance in the growth rate of a country. When women participate in the workforce increases the economic growth rate of the country increases. Gender equality increases the overall wellbeing of the nation along with economic prosperity .

How is Gender Equality Measured?

Gender equality is an important factor in determining a country’s overall growth. There are several indexes to measure gender equality.

Gender-Related Development Index (GDI) –   GDI is a gender centric measure of Human Development Index. GDI considers parameters like life expectancy, education, and incomes in assessing the gender equality of a country.

Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) – This measure includes much detail aspects like the proportion of seats than women candidates hold in national parliament, percentage of women at economic decision-making role, the income share of female employees.

Gender Equity Index (GEI) – GEI ranks countries on three parameters of gender inequality, those are education, economic participation, and empowerment. However, GEI ignores the health parameter.

Global Gender Gap Index – The World Economic Forum introduced the Global Gender Gap Index in 2006. This index focuses more on identifying the level of female disadvantage. The four important areas that the index considers are economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment, health, and survival rate.

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Gender Inequality in India

As per the World Economic Forum’s gender gap ranking, India stands at rank 108 out of 149 countries. This rank is a major concern as it highlights the immense gap in opportunities in women with comparison to men. In Indian society from a long time back, the social structure has been such that the women are neglected in many areas like education, health, decision-making areas, financial independence, etc.

Another major reason, which contributes to the discriminatory behavior towards women in India, is the dowry system in marriage.  Because of this dowry system, most Indian families consider girls as a burden.  Preference for son still prevails. Girls have refrained from higher education. Women are not entitled to equal job opportunities and wages. In the 21 st century, women are still preferred gender in home managing activities. Many women quit their job and opt-out from leadership roles because of family commitments. However, such actions are very uncommon among men.

For overall wellbeing and growth of a nation, scoring high on gender equality is the most crucial aspect. Countries with less disparity in gender equality have progressed a lot. The government of India has also started taking steps to ensure gender equality. Several laws and policies are prepared to encourage girls. “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana ” (Save girl, and make girls educated) campaign is created to spread awareness of the importance of girl child.  Several laws to protect girls are also there. However, we need more awareness of spreading knowledge of women rights . In addition, the government should take initiatives to check the correct and proper implementation of policies.

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Publishing Perspectives

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The Netherlands’ Elsevier: Gender Diversity in World Research Publishing

In Feature Articles by Porter Anderson June 10, 2024

A new, 20-year report from Elsevier today releases data on women in international research publishing: progress and more work needed.

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

See also: Elsevier’s Michiel Kolman in Amsterdam on Diversity in STM

Bayazit: To ‘Inform Targeted Interventions’

“Our hope is that the rich insights in this report, together with the extensive data available on the companion ‘Gender Diversity Dashboard,’ will help stimulate dialogue, sharing of best practice, and inform targeted interventions to support women researchers and innovators.”

And that’s the issue and the focus of this newly arrived survey of one of the world’s largest powerhouses in academic publishing: who writes the research it publishes?

Bayazit looks to Marie Curie for inspiration, positioning the question as the two-sided construct that these issues actually are, always: “We have sought to notice both ‘what has been done’ and ‘what remains to be done.’

The cooling rationale of that viewpoint lifts this research-by-a-research-publisher above the hair-tearing emotionality that often accompanies today’s inequities in gender (many of them flatly unforgivable in the current era, yet persistent). At a time when the word “political” itself can be politically weaponized, this exercise in politics and publishing is seated in the truths of skill and talent; of intelligence and experimentation by the best possible people, both men and women, in some of the most critical, urgent issues the world faces.

What the company says makes this effort a first-of-its-kind inquiry is both its 20-year time span and its range of “intersecting disciplines and geographies.” It steps around the natural impulse to sugarcoat the bad news, too, the company telling the news media today, “A lthough w omen’s representation in mathematics, engineering, and computer science is increasing, it is not projected to reach parity with men’s until 2052.

Nevertheless, the report leads, understandably, with its best number, one that does indicate that positive dynamics are providing growing support to the work of some women in research.

Top-Line Elements of the Elsevier Gender Report

The report sees women gaining in their share of active researchers internationally from 28 percent in 2001 to 41 percent in 2022. Health sciences reportedly show strong representation.

“However,” the associated discussion points out, “gender diversity hasn’t progressed equally in all fields. For example, in the physical sciences, women represent just 33 percent of researchers.”

In addition, it’s pointed out that “In multiple STEM disciplines, women’s participation is much lower. Women’s representation in research has increased across all cohorts, from early-career to advanced-career researchers. It’s also important to note that achieving parity in participation doesn’t necessarily equate to achieving equality opportunities, such as funding and representation in senior positions.”

International Regions and Women Researchers’ Gains

Women’s participation in the research workforce differs substantially by country and/or region, in the interpretation of Elsevier’s research.

The associated graphic is drawn from the ‘Gender Diversity Dashboard’ that’s provided with the new report.

• In Portugal and Argentina, just over half, 52 percent, of active researchers, per Elsevier’s reportage, are women.
• The company sees women making up nearly half of active researchers in Brazil, Spain, and Italy, and around 40 percent in the United States and United Kingdom.
• However, women make up 33 percent in India, which Elsevier says is now the world’s third-largest research producing country.
• The report sees 30 percent of researchers being women in Egypt and less than a quarter, 22 percent, of active researchers in Japan.
• Per Elsevier’s study, the average share of women among grant awardees increased globally from 29 percent in 2009 to 37 percent in 2022.
• The largest increases were for the Netherlands at a gain of 19 percentage points; Denmark, gaining 13 points; the United Kingdom, up 12 points; France, up 10 percentage points; Canada with a gain of 10; and Portugal up eight.

Women Researchers and the UN’s SDGs

Women, the report’s results indicate, comprise the majority of active researchers working on some UN Sustainable Development Goal research areas, including:

• Education (SDG 4)
• Gender equality (SDG 5)
• Reduction of inequalities (SDG 10)
• Peace and justice (SDG 16)

In 10 of the 17 SDGs, proportionally slightly more women engage in more multidisciplinary research than men. Multidisciplinary research, in which researchers from various disciplines collaborate, is considered important to solving complex global challenges.

Additional Leading Points

• “Publications authored by men are, on average, cited more,” the report’s results indicate, although the gap tends to diminish as careers advance. Citation metrics are widely used in bibliometrics as a proxy for excellence and relevance of research.”
• On the other hand, “Publications involving women are more likely to be cited in policy documents than publications by men. This holds,” the study says, “across health sciences and physical sciences, as measured by year-normalized policy citation scores.” It also holds across all analyzed countries between 2018 and 2022, except for Argentina.
• As of 2022, three-quarters of patent applications are filed either by men along or by teams consisting entirely of men. Nearly all patent-filing teams (97 percent) have at least one man on them. By contrast, just 3 percent of applications as of 2022 were filed by all-women teams.” In this study, Germany was the market showing the smallest share of patent applications filed.

Five Recommendations

Perhaps the most unremarkable element of the new report is its five recommendations to handle the room for improvement.

This is not to say that these aren’t good ideas, of course, but that they live close to the most obvious ideas for response.

• “Accelerate commitments and actions toward greater gender equality in research
• “Stop the decline in participation with rising seniority by p rioritizing the retention of early-career women researchers in mid- and advanced-career stages .
• “Develop incentive structures to help women play an equal part in the full research and innovation value chain , including patents .
• “Apply a broad range of indicators to measure research effectiveness, including societal and policy impact .
• “Continue to collect and report inclusion and diversity data to monitor progress, identify gaps, evaluate policies, and drive accountability.”

A ‘Gender Diversity Dashboard’

What the company calls its Gender Diversity Dashboard is a useful collection of graphics that can be adjusted to research various values and interests.

“There is progress but it is slow. At the current pace of change, equality remains too far away and further action is needed to accelerate change.” Kumsal Bayazit, Elsevier

For example, if we choose the right-alley option of “Trends Over Time” and then select the Decision Sciences—the study of how to make decisions using available information and predicting future risks and changes—and seat our inquiry in a career cohort of six to 10 years, and then draw it onto the European Union’s 27 markets, the United States, and an aggregate called “World,”  we get the following graphic under “research impact,” with the recent entry of women’s representation in the EU rather interesting, if belated.

Clearly, what’s interesting and hopeful here is the “World Breakdown by Year” graphic you find on the Overview page of the dashboard, in which the share of author count in all subjects is rising for women to that 41-percent mark and receding for men to a 58.6-percent mark in 2022 from 71.7 percent in 2001.

If anything, visuals make Bayazit’s and her researchers’ cautions clear: A lot of time and progress remain to be accomplished in bringing women and me closer to equal research publication, support, visibility, and impact. But surely quantifying and visualizing what can be seen as progress so far is not only encouraging but also enabling for moving forward.

The new report material and its associated content can be found here . A webinar sign-up option and a couple of associated articles can be found here .

More from Publishing Perspectives on academic and scholarly publishing and its issues is here ; more on gender in world publishing is here ; more on women in international publishing is here ; and more on industry statistics is here .

About the Author

Porter anderson.

Porter Anderson has been named International Trade Press Journalist of the Year in London Book Fair's International Excellence Awards. He is Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. He formerly was Associate Editor for The FutureBook at London's The Bookseller. Anderson was for more than a decade a senior producer and anchor with CNN.com, CNN International, and CNN USA. As an arts critic (Fellow, National Critics Institute), he was with The Village Voice, the Dallas Times Herald, and the Tampa Tribune, now the Tampa Bay Times. He co-founded The Hot Sheet, a newsletter for authors, which now is owned and operated by Jane Friedman.

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Gender Parity Consultant - Home Based

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28-Jun-24 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

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English  

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UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. UN Women is mandated to lead, coordinate and promote the accountability of the UN system for women’s equal representation. Women’s equal representation has been addressed by various international instruments, including the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (1979) as well as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995).

Achieving gender parity is an urgent priority, not only as a basic human right, but also as it is essential to the United Nations’ efficiency, impact, and credibility. The United Nations, as the principal international standard-setting institution, bears a special responsibility to lead by example and leave no one behind.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres launched the System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity (2017) (hereafter ‘the Strategy’) with the aim to achieve equal representation of women and men at all grades across the UN System by 2028. This Strategy focuses on target setting, accountability, special measures, senior appointments, mission settings as well as creation of enabling working environments.

In this context, UN Women supports the UN System to reach gender parity, based on its mandate to lead, promote and coordinate efforts to advance the full realization of women’s rights and opportunities. Office of the Focal Point for Women in the UN System at UN Women (hereafter ‘the Office’) is responsible for providing guidance to the UN System in support of the Strategy.

As the Secretary-General stated in his Strategy, gender parity is not only about numbers but also about changing the organizational culture. Therefore, the Office has created the Enabling Environment Guidelines and the Field-specific Enabling Environment Guidelines for the UN System that provide guidance and recommendations on how to create enabling working environments, together with good practice examples. Furthermore, the Office has been engaged in the work of the UN Executive Group to prevent and respond to Sexual harassment (formerly known as the CEB Task Force on addressing sexual harassment).

The consultant will work under the overall guidance and direct supervision of the Senior Advisor, in collaboration with other team members. S/he will support the work related to the UN Executive Group on addressing sexual harassment. Furthermore, s/he is expected to support the Office’s work related to leading and coordinating the system-wide network of Gender Focal Points.

In the beginning of the assignment, a work plan will be developed, including expected outputs and success indicators over the reporting period. Informal feedback will be provided regularly.

Duties and Responsibilities

• The consultant will provide substantive support to UN Women’s leadership in the UN Executive Group to prevent and respond to sexual harassment . This will require support to the Senior Advisor and the Focal Point for Women, through presenting ideas for high-level dialogues, organizing events, creating concept and briefing notes as well as other documents, liaising with internal and external stakeholders, including the UN Gender Focal Points, and ensuring effective communication and advocacy. Moreover, the consultant will support the administration and advocacy of the System-wide Knowledge Hub on addressing sexual harassment, which was launched by UN-Women in 2023.
• The consultant will assist in the provision of technical and analytical system-wide support to implement the Enabling Environment Guidelines, Supplementary Guidance and the Field-specific Enabling Environment Guidelines in support of the Secretary-General’s System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity across the UN System, including and especially in the country and mission settings.
• The consultant will also support the work related to the system-wide Gender Focal Point Network, amongst others through organizing online and in-person capacity-building sessions, and other engagements through planning, researching, and inviting relevant speakers, conducting and preparing technical arrangements. The consultant will support maintaining and updating the Gender Focal Point Extranet , a tool for disseminating and sharing gender parity related resources and providing walk-throughs and introductions to new Gender Focal Points, as requested.
• The consultant will contribute to drafting policy papers, background research, and briefing notes as requested and as necessary. S/he will also provide a draft of the Office’s monthly reports, as requested.
• The consultant will support the preparatory work related to the Office’s achievements and progress of the implementation of the Secretary-General’s system-wide Strategy on Gender Parity, UN Women’s Implementation Plan as well as UN Women’s Strategic Plan through coordinating the inputs, in concert with other team members.
• Perform other official duties and ad-hoc assignments as needed.

Competencies

Competencies:

Corporate competencies:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;
• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work: gender equality;

Functional competencies:

• Strong organizational and planning skills;
• Ability to work well under pressure, and to meet deadlines;
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work as part of a team;
• Excellent knowledge of office software packages.

Required Skills and Experience

•           Master’s Degree or equivalent in Gender/Women’s Studies, Social Sciences, Political Science, Communications, International Development, Psychology, International Law, or related field.

•           A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

•           Previous work experience of 2 years in United Nations’ organizational context and particularly in gender parity and in creation of enabling working environments is strongly preferred.

•           Proficiency in English is required, working knowledge of other UN official language will be an asset.

Qualifications

• Excellent writing abilities, including drafting, organizing, and presenting information well.
• Demonstrated research skills and knowledge on gender equality.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Familiarity with UN Women’s work, especially related to gender parity, or prior experience with the UN considered an asset.

Deliverables and Timeline: The duration of the consultancy is an initial period of 6 months, renewable pending on satisfactory performance. Payment will be monthly.

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More Women in Africa Are Using Long-Acting Contraception, Changing Lives

Methods such as hormonal implants and injections are reaching remote areas, providing more discretion and autonomy.

By Stephanie Nolen

Photographs by Natalija Gormalova

Reporting from towns and villages in western Ghana.

On a busy day at the Kwapong Health Centre in rural Ghana, Beatrice Nyamekye put contraceptive implants into the arms of a half-dozen women, and gave eight or nine more a three-month hormonal injection to prevent pregnancy. A few sought condoms or birth control pills, but most wanted something longer lasting.

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