Gender Inequality and Sustainable Development: Women’s Empowerment and Effective Participation

Dear Colleagues,

In 2015, the United Nations set out a series of goals in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to improve the lives of everyone, both environmentally and socially. The Agenda contains 17 Sustainable Development Goal—SDGs—among which, in fifth place, is gender equality. Since then, however, cultural progress has not always been followed by deeds, evidenced by income inequality in the same job positions still being great, top or managerial roles being de facto reserved for men, and poverty being higher among older women than men.

Sustainability does not only mean environmental care and ecological transition. It is a more complex concept that concerns the relationship between the economy and society and is therefore also part of broader social sustainability, of which gender equality is one of the pillars. In fact, it goes far beyond the issue of gender equality or social justice. In fact, for Goal 5 of the UN 2030 Agenda, gender equality, empowerment, and self-determination of all women and girls are not just a few issues among others but rather the strategic theme that cuts across all the other goals. None of them can be tackled without the gender lens that envisages an active, leading, and empowering role for women; no society can prosper if it wastes, disperses, and plunders half of its human resources.

The economic culture we know is characterised by an iron distinction between economic/non-economic, work/non-work, and, considering that the production of exchange values is the main economic activity, the only work considered as such is 'paid' work. Again, economic responsibilities belong to the man, non-economic responsibilities to the woman. On this dichotomy are built the social and even interpersonal relations that structure the power relations between the sexes.

Breaking free from this dichotomy means putting the sustainability of life at the centre, building a worldview that values the links between economic, social, cultural, and symbolic, and re-establishing a symmetrical order between the genders.

The aim of this Special Issue is to fill key gaps in the literature, offering scholars the opportunity to examine emerging trends in corporate policies, strategies, and practices related to sustainability and gender equity issues.

The Special Issue welcomes the submission of both empirical and conceptual articles with research methods that offer theoretical and practical contributions to the areas of interest. We also welcome completed research papers using qualitative, quantitative, and mixed research methods. Contributors are encouraged, but not confined, to focus on the following areas:

Key themes/topics:

• Measuring the gender gap through indicators;
• Diversity and equal employment issues in public and private sector organizations;
• Effective participation and equal opportunities;
• Gender awareness and awareness of diverse forms of gender inequalities;
• Gender-equitable sustainable development;
• Gender equity, environmental sustainability, and climate change;
• Nexus between gender equity, sustainable consumption, and the green economy;
• Poverty eradication, human rights issues, and gender equity;
• Social sustainability, health and wellbeing, women’s empowerment, and gender equity;
• Sustainability, corporate governance, and gender equity;
• Sustainable gender equality practice across disciplines;
• The role of business, government, and society in addressing gender inequity and sustainability challenges.

Dr. Enrico Ivaldi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• gender awareness
• gender equity
• sustainability
• effective participation
• women’s empowerment
• gender-equitable sustainable development