Transnational gender equality: A framework for analysis and three prospective agendas for future IB research

Abstract

Gender equality is a global grand challenge and U.N. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG5) requiring the impetus of the IB community. As members of this community, Professional Services Firms (PSFs) providing HR-related consultancy services play an influential role in promoting the business case for gender equality to client businesses pursuing greater workforce diversity and inclusion. However, PSFs struggle to accomplish gender equality themselves. In this article, we examine the gendering of transnational PSFs through an integrative literature review to establish how the IB community can address shortcomings with existing gender equality research and strategy. Our review explains how and why gendered structural and relational processes and practices at multiple levels shape the varied experiences and behaviors of professionals in these firms. We use these findings to advance a new framework for the transnational analysis of gender equality, which synthesizes the dynamic processes and practices gendering PSFs and moves past top-down and colonial perspectives to counter biases in current theorization. We then set out three prospective agendas for the IB community to progress future gender equality research, strategy and practice.