Gender, Sustainability, and Urbanism: A Systematic Review of Literature and Cross-Cluster Analysis

Abstract

Gender diversity and equality have a significant influence on policymaking regarding sustainable development, environmental issues, and urbanism. This study examines the general bibliometric outlook and research patterns of publications on gender equality, urbanism, and sustainability to provide a general perspective on the relevant literature and trends for institutions and scholars who wish to conduct research within the framework of gender, sustainability, and urbanism. The findings of this study show that there are a limited number of studies dealing with gender equality, sustainability, and urbanism. The study analyzed 308 papers in total, utilizing data mining and analytics techniques such as t-SNE and SNA for a systematic review process. The study utilized the PRISMA protocol as the research method. The results showed that research on the frame of gender, sustainability, and urbanism peaked in 2021, and the top countries for studying gender, sustainability, and urbanism are the USA, the UK, Spain, and China. The research fields that contributed the most were those dealing with environmental studies and green and sustainable technologies, followed by those dealing with business and women’s studies. The following three thematically inclined clusters were revealed by the t-SNE analysis: (1) Gender Diversity, Corporate Sustainability, and Board Governance; (2) Gender, Environmental Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Policy Agenda; and (3) Gender, Sustainable Urbanism, and Community Development. The findings of the study revealed that fostering gender equality with policies such as gender mainstreaming, as in SDG 5 and SDG 11, and gender equality strategies of the EU or UN will help to overcome discrimination against women in the urban space and empower sustainable development.