Culture and Context Matter: Gender in International Business and Management

Gender equality was one of the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2000 and 2015, respectively. We argue that culture and context (institutions and government policies) have shaped, for good or ill, each country’s progress toward gender equality. Using two well-known gender inequality indices, we examine cross-country differences in gender equality since 2000. Our empirical work suggests that large gender inequalities continue to exist and that the gap between rich and poor countries may even be widening. In the introductory paper to this Special Issue on “Gender in International Business and Management”, we also review the papers in the Special Issue, highlighting their contributions to research on gender in international management, anthropology and gender, women’s leadership, and women’s entrepreneurship. We conclude with a call for a sustained research program by management and international business scholars on the linkages among gender, culture and context.