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Open research questions in Gender Diversity and Inequality

249 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 5,221 Gender Diversity and Inequality papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • of A - M. Lazarević-Moravčević, J.Minović, M. Đukić, M.Mosurović Ružičić 139 https://www.dewr.gov.au/download/11788/benefits-flexible-working- arrangements/22405/benefits-flexible-working-arrangements/pdf [22] Giménez-Nadal, J. I., & Velilla, J. (2024). Home-based work, time allocations, and subjective well-being: gender differences in the United Kingdom. Empirica, 51(1), 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10663-023-09590- z [23] Hagqvist, E. (2018). Toward gender equality in practice? Cross-national patterns of change in the gendered division of housework over two decades.

    Perceptions of Flexible Work Arrangements Among Women Researchers in Serbia: Evidence from Social and Humanities Science Research Sectors · 2026 · DOI

  • The sample is purposively selected, and the findings are not intended to be statistically generalisable. The analysis is confined to selected cities and sectors, which may limit applicability to other organisational and regional contexts. While the study acknowl- edges heterogeneity among women leaders by caste, class, region, and caregiving status, it does not systematically disaggregate analysis along these dimensions.

    Leadership experiences of alienation and career advancement among women in Indian corporates · 2026 · DOI

  • Originality/value By considering the underexplored intertwined effects of multiple social psychological factors at the roots of negative evaluation of women as managers, the study addresses the complex psychological process that enables the continuance of gender discrimination in leadership roles.

    Towards glass ceiling: binding moral foundations and gender essentialism mediating the role of need for cognitive closure on attitudes towards women managers · 2026 · DOI

  • In both countries, women leaders took individual steps to mitigate the effects of IP by leading authentically while accepting the phenomenon as an uncomfortable reality, because systemic organisational support remains elusive.

    Exploring the imposter phenomenon among women leaders in the manufacturing sector: insights from South Africa and the United Kingdom · 2026 · DOI

  • ABSTRACT Extant research examining the link between board ethnic diversity (BED) and environmental and social (ES) performance has produced contradictory evidence, calling for further investigation and clarification.

    From Fragmentation to Cohesion: How Board Ethnic Diversity Shapes Environmental and Social Performance · 2026 · DOI

  • i. The accuracy of the results depends on the honesty of the respondents. 174 Dhadhal / Journal of Management Research and Analysis 2026;13(2):171–177 ii. iii. A sample size of only 50 respondents may not adequately represent the entire population. Thus, what is true for the sample may not be true for the entire population. Crisis leadership behaviour may be influenced by additional factors beyond those considered in this study.

    How gender role identity affects crisis leadership behaviour · 2026 · DOI

  • Female-led entrepreneurial ventures' performance and success can be greatly impacted by matriarchal leadership approaches. The following recommendations, which are based on current research and best practices, can assist female leaders, organisations, and entrepreneurial ventures in utilising matriarchal leadership traits to improve the business's success: i. Development of Emotional Intelligence and Empathy Matriarchal leaders are adept in emotional intelligence and interpersonal communication. Strong relationships with team members, clients, and stakeholders can be cultivated by female entrepreneurs through the development of empathy and emotional intelligence. Entrepreneurial endeavours require teamwork, improved communication, and trust, all of which are fostered by compassionate leadership. ii.

    The effects of matriarchal leadership styles on the success and performance of female-led South African entrepreneurial ventures: A systematic literature review · 2026 · DOI

  • The findings of this study highlight the critical need for organisational reforms that address gender-specific occupational stress among social auxiliary workers (SAWs). One key area for intervention is the review and restructuring of task allocation and career advancement opportunities to promote gender balance. Male SAWs’ experiences of marginalisation in core tasks suggest that equitable distribution of responsibilities and clearer pathways for career progression could reduce stress and foster a more inclusive organisational environment. In addition, strengthening employee wellness programs with a gender-sensitive approach is essential. Organisational culture that prioritises employee well-being forms the foundation for addressing occupational stress (Batorsky, 2016; Harlin, 2013). The Employee Wellness Section should play a proactive role in developing interventions tailored to the unique stressors faced by both male and female SAWs. Gender-specific wellness programs can provide targeted support, promoting mental health, work-life balance, and coping strategies for occupational challenges. Another important consideration is the implementation of mechanisms that actively capture employee feedback. Regular surveys and engagement exercises can elevate the voices of employees who may not participate in departmental activities, particularly male SAWs who reported lower levels of involvement. Such initiatives not only ensure that organisational policies are informed by employees’ lived experiences but also contribute to improved engagement, well-being, and overall performance (Garrad & Hyland, 2020). Finally, integrating gender considerations into organisational policies and practices such as dress codes, task assignments, and participation in departmental activities can help mitigate stress that arises from structural and cultural factors. By fostering an 162 Mandlazi, International Journal of Research in Business & Social Science 15(3) (2026), 158-164 inclusive organisational culture that values equity and wellness, the Department can create a supportive environment that reduces gendered stress, enhances employee satisfaction, and ultimately strengthens organisational performance.

    The influence of organisational design on gender-specific stress and workplace productivity · 2026 · DOI

  • ● Sample Bias: Study might be limited by using self-reports, which are susceptible to biases like social desirability bias. ● Geo-Regional Limitations: Even if respondents come from different industries, it could be less broad across geographic areas which limits its generalisability to other cultures.

    Women in Corporate Leadership: Barriers, Challenges, and Strategies for Inclusion · 2026 · DOI

  • Strengthening the alignment between digitalization and sustainable governance in higher education requires clear institutional frameworks that define the scope and boundaries of digital communication practices. Regulations limiting after-hours communication, structuring online meetings, and managing expectations of constant accessibility are essential for protecting work/life balance. Digital transformation initiatives should be designed with gender sensitivity, increasing women leaders’ visibility in decision-making processes and supporting training that addresses ethical communication and bias reduction. Mentoring and support networks remain critical for addressing structural and relational barriers that undermine women’s leadership continuity. Finally, digital sustainability should be evaluated not only through environmental indicators but also through human-centered measures such as well-being, cognitive load, focus, and productivity. Such an approach may help transform digitalization into a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable governance framework within higher education.

    Digitalization, Women’s Leadership, and Sustainable Governance in Higher Education · 2026 · DOI

  • As with any qualitative inquiry, this study is shaped by certain contextual and methodological limitations that should be acknowledged when interpreting the findings. First, the research focuses on female academic leaders within higher education institutions, and the findings are therefore embedded in a specific organizational and cultural context. While this focus allows for an in-depth exploration of women leaders’ experiences with digitalization, organizational communication, and sustainable governance, it also limits the direct transferability of the results to other sectors or institutional settings. Additionally, the study relies on a purposive sample of 30 participants, which provides rich qualitative insights but does not aim at statistical generalization. The findings should thus be understood as analytically transferable rather than universally representative. A further limitation relates to the nature of self-reported data. Participants’ narratives reflect subjective experiences and sense-making processes, which are valuable for understanding leadership and communication dynamics but may also be influenced by individual perceptions, positionality, and organizational context. Moreover, while the study captures women leaders’ perspectives on digitalization and gendered barriers, it does not include comparative accounts from male leaders or other organizational actors, which could offer additional layers of interpretation regarding power relations and governance practices. These limitations point toward several directions for future research. Comparative studies examining different institutional contexts, leadership positions, or gender identities could deepen understanding of how digitalization interacts with organizational culture and sustainability. Longitudinal research designs may also be particularly valuable in tracing how digital communication practices and leadership experiences evolve over time, especially as digital technologies become further embedded in organizational routines. Finally, future studies could integrate mixed-method approaches insights with quantitative measures of organizational sustainability, well-being, and leadership effectiveness. Such research would contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of how digital transformation can be aligned with sustainable and gender-sensitive governance in higher education and beyond.

    Digitalization, Women’s Leadership, and Sustainable Governance in Higher Education · 2026 · DOI

  • Research limitations/implications Research limitations include the geographic scope since it was limited to a single Midwestern state with rural female PK-12 educational leaders, a small sample size of 25 participants of women in rural educational leadership, whose perspectives may not be generalizable to suburban and urban settings, thus causing bias.

    Navigating the glass ceiling, gender equity and overcoming barriers in rural PK-12 educational leadership · 2025 · DOI

  • Although organizations including the Higher Education Resource Services (HERS) and the American Council on Education (ACE) have established programming for aspiring women leaders beginning in the 1970s and have been enhancing and revising programs to reflect new evidence and respond to the changing needs of woman-identified leaders, much remains to be done.

    Women’s Leadership Development: The Need, the Impact, the Future · 2025 · DOI

  • Using fourth-generation Smart PLS-SEM analysis, it provides fresh insights into how these elements shape women’s leadership roles, especially within the under-studied Ugandan context.

    Bridging the gender gap: analyzing women’s participation and leadership representation in university governance · 2024 · DOI

  • Design/methodology/approach The dataset comprises 30 interviews with female bank managers and senior engineers in Nigeria – a non-Western location and work group – a sample that is considered under-researched.

    Confronting social dominance ideology: how professional women manage career stereotypes in male-dominated occupations · 2024 · DOI

  • Moreover, while prior research indicates that directors’ decision- making evolves with their board tenure (Sun and Bhuiyan, 2020), the specific changes in decision-making processes among minority directors, such as women, as their tenure increases remain unclear.

    Board gender diversity and ESG performance: The mediating role of temporal orientation in South Africa context · 2024 · DOI

  • The limitations of the research are that the participation of the participants in the research is based on voluntariness, contacting people through online platforms due to Covid 19, the research is carried out in a limited time frame and the opinions of the participants are limited to the questions in the measurement tools.

    Career Barriers of Women Architects in the Construction Sector · 2022 · DOI

  • Results indicated that age and gender/sex were reported in about half of studies in JOBM and most studies in JAP, but race, socioeconomic status, and first language were rarely reported across journals.

    Reporting Demographic Variables in <i>JOBM</i> and <i>JAP</i>: A Comparison and Call to Action · 2022 · DOI

  • The necessity of gender diversity on corporate boards is mostly based on economic rationale, which is insufficient due to two reasons; first, it is not always possible to find a correlation between female participation on boards and the interests of the shareholders, and second such a correlation for male members of the board is not sought.

    GENDER DIVERSITY ON BOARDS OF DIRECTORS IN JOINT-STOCK CORPORATIONS IN TURKEY: COMBINING HARD AND SOFT LAW · 2022 · DOI

  • Nevertheless, participants stress that women face greater barriers than men when it comes to reaching top-level positions; highlighting issues such as a lack of mentorship, delayed motherhood, experiencing sexist behavior and comments from male colleagues; and a lack of consensus around measures, such as reconciling work–life balance, as a means of largely eliminating the barriers they face in the university.

    Gender Barriers in Academia: Perceptions of Inequality in Professional Development among Female Academics in the Faculty of Education, University of Alicante, Spain · 2022 · DOI

  • The literature about women’s roles in corporate structure does not provide clear, systemic, integrative answers to fundamental questions such as which factors shape board gender composition and women’s roles in business and corporate networks? With the intention to help overcome this gap in the literature, this paper examines the dynamics of women’s access to corporate boards for more than a century in Argentina and Chile.

    Women may be climbing on board, but not in first class: A long-term study of the factors affecting women’s board participation in Argentina and Chile (1923–2010) · 2022 · DOI

  • To address that gap in research, this article addresses the questions: What gendered experiences and observations do practicing civil engineers have within their first three years in the workplace? And How can those experiences be accounted for in a model of organisational socialisation? Three sets of interviews were conducted with men and women early career civil engineers in the United States.

    Gender as structure in the organisational socialisation of newcomer civil engineers · 2021 · DOI

  • Originality/value Although much of the management and organisational literature accepts the concept of gender binarism and cis-normativity, the integration of TGD employee voices through the adaptation of S&BS from an educational context into organisational management has not been explored.

    Proposing the safe and brave space for organisational environment: including trans* and gender diverse employees in institutional gender diversification · 2021 · DOI

  • Abstract Given the mixed evidence that having both women and men in the top management team (TMT) or in the board of directors (BOD) has a significant influence on organizational innovation, we resolve this issue by conceptualizing TMT–BOD gender diversity as part of a multiteam system, that has joint effects which impact organizational innovation.

    The performance impact of gender diversity in the top management team and board of directors: A multiteam systems approach · 2021 · DOI

  • Originality/value In order to account for the complexities within diversity research, the authors propose the use of the job demands-resources (JDR) model which suggests possible explanations for inconsistent findings and bridges the gap between commonly used theoretical perspectives.

    Diverse effects of team diversity: a review and framework of surface and deep-level diversity · 2021 · DOI

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249 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 5,221 Gender Diversity and Inequality papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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