Gender equality in the workspace: A literature review and a research agenda

Abstract

This paper proposes a comprehensive literature review, exploring how workplace strategy influences female workers and, more generally, impact on gender equality. This promising strand of the literature is acquiring more and more attention among scholars, but it is still nascent. The literature shows a general convincement that the workspace affect women and men to different extents and that the issue is emerging across different fields, but a transversal and inter-disciplinary stance would be desirable to identify a broader spectrum of gender-related issues in the workspace. We performed a systematic review of 86 papers published in the last ten years (2010 – 2019),. We built a conceptual framework of analysis in order to categorize emerging issues and subjects that differently affect women, including both workspace design and workspace organization of the workplace. Our research will benefit scholars, executives and designers that deal with workplace management and are keen on finding tools and policies for improving gender equality in the workplace.