Culture and context matter: gender in international business and management Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue that culture and context (policy and environment) are key factors affecting gender inequalities within and across countries. Design/methodology/approach This paper applies conceptual and descriptive statistics. Findings The authors found evidence of increasing gender equality in the workplace, but only for rich countries. Gender inequalities persist in the poorest countries, and the gap between rich and poor countries appears to be widening not narrowing. Research limitations/implications This paper demonstrates the need for a comprehensive research program on gender and international business. Practical implications The authors provided useful statistics that could possibly be picked up by newspapers. The paper also highlights the need for a more sustained research program on gender and development. Social implications This paper demonstrates that the public perception of increasing gender equality applies only in very high development (rich) countries. In fact, gender inequality rises as economic development levels decline across countries, and the gap between very high and low countries has widened over the past 15 years. Originality/value The empirical findings with respect to gender inequality across United Nations Development Program country categories over time are, to the best of the authors knowledge, novel and original. Relating the gender inequality gap to culture and context highlights the roles that social issues and the environment play in affecting gender inequality across countries and across time.

published proceedings

  • CROSS CULTURAL & STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

altmetric score

  • 9.75

author list (cited authors)

  • Eden, L., & Gupta, S. F.

citation count

  • 19

complete list of authors

  • Eden, Lorraine||Gupta, Susan Forquer

publication date

  • May 2017