Women's career equality and leadership in organizations: Creating an evidence‐based positive change

Abstract

Research on women's career equality and leadership is growing in importance for advancing social justice, equal employment opportunity, and global and national economic goals. Despite the increased attention being paid to gender equality for decades, progression has slowed or stalled around the globe, in many countries, such as United States. The goal of this special issue is to address the persistent research‐to‐practice gap in developing and implementing practical solutions for a positive change to advance women's career equality. In this introduction, we provide a brief overview of the approaches used to study women's careers and discuss how research and practices that are more inclusive of women's needs, values, and career experiences should be broadened to include more expansive and less‐gendered notions of careers. Then, we introduce the articles in the special issue that inform current directions in (a) career and leadership theory, research, and methodologies for gender equality and (b) the application of scholarship to organizations. We conclude with a summary of some lessons for future research and practice on closing the women's career‐equality gap.