Call for Papers: Advancing theory by addressing the Gender Data Gap

This special issue focuses on the effects and possible solutions to gender disparities caused by the Gender Data Gap. Analysing this data gap with its effects and possible solutions in detail will deepen our knowledge of gender-based discrepancies and their origins and implications. Below, we present a number of lines of inquiry that seem particularly fruitful in stimulating novel theoretical insights.

Topics of interest

Evolution, perpetuation and reproduction of the Gender Data Gap

The following are possible questions that contributors might address:

• How do the individual characteristics and behaviours of managers and leaders accentuate or attenuate the effects of the Gender Data Gap?
• What interpersonal processes maintain and reproduce versus interrupt the effects of the data gap?
• How (i.e. through what processes and mechanisms) do organisational cultures facilitate versus prevent the development and perpetuation of the Gender Data Gap?
• How do firm- and industry-level factors contribute to Gender Data Gap effects on women’s careers?

Effects of the Gender Data Gap on women

Possible questions include, but are not limited to:

• How does the Gender Data Gap affect women’s careers and upward mobility?
• To what extent do Gender Data Gaps cause or exacerbate toxic cultures and workplaces?
• How do various social actors (HR managers, activist organisations, headhunters, the media, universities and business schools) help maintain or close the data gap and with what consequences?
• How can our management and organisation theories be extended and strengthened by making ‘invisible acts’ (e.g. instrumental work activities done by women that are neither recognised nor rewarded) more visible?

Effects of the Gender Data Gap on intervention effectiveness

Accordingly, we encourage questions such as (but not exclusive to):

• What are the assumptions in management and organisation studies that must be revisited based on novel insights derived from efforts to close the Gender Data Gap?

• How does the Gender Data Gap intersect with cross-cutting systems of disadvantage (e.g. race, age and ability)? What are the implications for the effectiveness of interventions designed to ‘help women’?

In sum, we encourage contributions that address any of the above issues. We propose that the development and facilitation of the data gap, as well as its effects on women’s careers and wellbeing, should be approached from a multi-phenomenal and multi-level perspective that comprises leadership, values, norms and goals at the managerial and organisational levels.

Submission instructions

Every manuscript submitted to this special issue must provide both theoretical/conceptual and practical contributions. Conceptual, review and empirical papers will all be considered.

All submissions are subject to the European Management Journal’s double-blind peer review process, should respect the journal’s general publication guidelines and should be submitted through https://www.editorialmanager.com/eumj/default1.aspx between 1^st August and 18^th September, 2023. The special issue will be published in 2025.

To ensure that all manuscripts are correctly identified for consideration for this special issue, it is important that authors select ‘SI: Gender Data Gap’ as the paper type. Please direct any questions about the special issue to Dr Sonja Sperber (sonja.sperber@wu.ac.at).