Progress and challenges in narrowing the gender publication gap and parity

• Date: 20 January 2025
• Pages: 18-41
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-07-2024-0314
• Published date: 20 January 2025
• Author: Herman Aguinis,Harry Joo,Guillermo Armando Ronda-Pupo,Young Hun Ji

Progress and challenges in narrowing

the gender publication gap and parity

Herman Aguinis

School of Business, The George Washington University,

Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Harry Joo

School of Business Administration, University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio, USA

Guillermo Armando Ronda-Pupo

Escuela de Ingenier

ıa, Universidad Catolica del Norte - Sede Coquimbo,

Coquimbo, Chile, and

Young Hun Ji

Aiven, Helsinki, Finland

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this study is to examine the narrowing of the gender publication gap (GPG) and

predict when gender publication parity will be achieved. It investigates if women’s publication rates are catching

up with men’s when the proportion of published articles by women will match their representation in the field,

and how the gender gap and parity are changing concerning lead authorships. The study analyzes data from

11,097researchers across 8 management journals from 2002 to 2020, revealing a higher growth rate in women’s

publications and varying degrees of parity achievement between micro and macro domains.

Design/methodology/approach –Wecreated a database of all researchers who published at least one article in

eight management journals from January 2002 through December 2020. It included 11,097 unique researchers

who produced 7,357 unique articles, resulting in 21,361 authorships. We used data from the Webof Science to

identify articles and their authors, filtering for “articles” and “reviews” only.We used allometric modeling and

time series analysis to examine the GPG and forecast gender publication parity.

Findings –We found that the GPG is narrowing, with women’s publication rates growing faster than men’s.

Parity in lead authorships has already been achieved or is within reach for many journals, especially in micro

domains. However, macro-oriented journals show slower progress, with some not expected to reach parity until

2045 or later. These improvements are linked to increased representation of women in leadership positions and

targeted mentoring programs in micro domains.

Research limitations/implications –While our study focused on publications, it did not account for citations,

which could provide a more comprehensive view of research impact. Future research should explore other

journals and different time windows and include citation analysis to understand the GPG and parity further.

Practical implications –The narrowing GPG is a positive development for organization studies, particularly in

micro domains. This progress can mitigate stereotypes about women’s abilities, promote equity in hiring and

promotion by considering authorship order and highlight the importance of targeted mentoring programs to

reduce barriers for women. Additionally, business schools should identify and address performance situational

constraints that disproportionately affect women, using techniques like the critical incidents approach to design

effective interventions.

Social implications –The study’s societal implications include fostering greater gender equity in academic

publishing, which can influence broader social norms and reduce gender stereotypes in academia. Achieving

EDI

44,9

18

© Herman Aguinis, Harry Joo, Guillermo Armando Ronda-Pupo and Young Hun Ji. Published by

Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for

both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and

authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/

legalcode

Author note: Wethank Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Editor Ed Ng and two anonymous reviewers

for highly constructive feedback on previous versions of our article. We thank Isabel Villamor (IESE

School of Business, Madrid, Spain) for her contributions in the earlier stages of this project.

Data availability statement: The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are

available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 17 July 2024

Revised 13 September 2024

21 October 2024

19 December 2024

Accepted 24 December 2024

Equality,Diversity and Inclusion: An

InternationalJournal

Vol.44 No. 9, 2025

pp.18-41

EmeraldPublishing Limited

e-ISSN:2040-7157

p-ISSN:2040-7149

DOI10.1108/EDI-07-2024-0314

gender parity in publications can lead to more equitable hiring, promotion and recognition practices.

Additionally,it highlights the importance of removing performance situational constraints and biases that hinder

women’s academic progress, thus promoting a more inclusive and fair academic environment.These changes

can inspire other fields to implement similar measures, contributing to societal progress toward gender equality.

Originality/value –The study’s originality/value lies in its longitudinal approach to analyzing the GPG in

organization studies, contrasting with prior cross-sectional studies. It provides new insights by predicting when

gender parity will be achieved in various journals, showing faster progress in micro domains compared to macro

domains. Additionally, the study introduces methodological innovations such as allometric modeling and

scenario-based analyses, highlighting the importance of reducing situational constraints for women in academia.

These findings offer a nuanced understanding of the ongoing efforts and challenges in achieving gender equity in

academic publishing.

Keywords Gender gap, Gender parity, Gender equity,Research productivity, Inclusion

Paper type Research paper

Numerous organizations have implemented initiatives to increase women’s output in scientific

domains and mitigate the gender gap in academia (e.g. Leslie et al., 2017). For example, the

National Science Foundation’s (NSF) ADVANCE program funds projects to increase women’s

scientific participation. Since 2001, NSF has invested over $270M to support ADVANCE

projects (National Science Foundation, 2024). Similarly,in the business domain, the Association

to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business “continues to encourage greater women

representation and gender equality and inclusion initiatives across its network of schools”

(McLeod, 2016). These initiatives seem effective in increasing women’s representation in

scientific domains, given that more women than men now earn doctoral degrees in many

scientific fields (National Science Foundation, 2019). For example, Figure 1 depicts the steady

rise in women’s share of Ph.D.s conferred annually in (a) business and management and (b)

behavioral and social sciences (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2017).

The significant increase in women’s representation in doctoral degree attainment has led to

a concomitant steady increase in women’s representation in the university faculty population.

Figure 1. Women’sshare of Ph.D.s conferred annually in (a) behavioral and social sciences and (b) business

and management from 1965 through 2015

Equality,Diversity

and Inclusion: An

International

Journal

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