Gender Equality: Empowering Women and Girls for Sustainable Development

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable development goals (SDGs) are a critical policy for all countries in the current environment (Appolloni, Jabbour, D'Adamo, Gastaldi, and Settembre-Blundo, 2022). The ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 are not merely intended to benefit women in the future, and women actively contribute to their realization. In addition to being a goal in and of itself, gender equality is essential for social, economic, and environmental sustainability. There are two reasons to support gender equality. First and foremost, it is an issue of social justice and human rights for women and men to have equal rights, opportunities, and responsibilities. And secondly, achieving more gender equality is a requirement for (and a reliable sign of) sustained people-centred development. In addition to being important for social justice, the perspectives, needs, and objectives of men and women must be considered to improve development processes (Ali et al., 2023).

Designing a future of well-being through sustainable business models requires immediate action (D’Adamo and Lupi, 2021). Although new technologies are an enabling factor for sustainability in transition processes, their introduction has raised several concerns; first, their accessibility creates conditions of inequality when they do not create benefits for all equally (United Nations, 2016).

Some scholars have paid attention to gender equality (Di Vaio, Hassan, and Palladino, 2023), especially for decarbonization processes (Di Vaio, Zaffar, Balsalobre-Lorente and Garofalo, 2023; UN Climate Change Conference UK, 2021). According to the UN Women Report (2017), new technologies are one of the causes of inequality and violence if women are not employed fairly in technologically advanced production and consumption models. Likewise, adopting digital technologies without the responsible behaviour of organizations can hinder achieving sustainability goals, e.g., social ones, threatening to empower women and girls for sustainable development. In this direction, SDG #5 has established priorities not only in terms of goals but also of targets. Therefore, initiatives and practices aimed at achieving the social goals of sustainability that influence performance, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and business ethics are encouraged (Carroll and Brown, 2018).

To achieve SDGs, especially SDG #5, academics and practitioners seek technical tools, accounting and reporting approaches, and practices (Bebbington and Unerman, 2018; Schaltegger, 2018). This process is vital for business as usual. Broadly reading the proposed managerial instruments can fill the gap between regulatory and research frameworks.

The Special Issue is addressed to invite scholars to highlight the current methodologies and practices for the SDG #5 initiatives and practices adopted by business organizations of private and public sectors. The cover of this Special Issue is to promote innovative and original research on the managerial accounting methodology and practices for achieving SDG #5. Significant papers of theoretical and empirical research on these topics are welcomed.

Topics:

• Business models and SDGs #5;
• Environmental and social accounting and SDG #5;
• Management innovation for SDG #5;
• SDG #5, GHG accounting, and carbon accounting;
• Resilience theory, SDG #5, and integrated reporting;
• SDG #5 and innovation systems;
• SDG #5 and sustainability transitions;
• SDG #5 initiatives/practices and business continuity.
  

References

Appolloni, A., Jabbour, C. J. C., D'Adamo, I., Gastaldi, M., and Settembre-Blundo, D. (2022). Green recovery in the mature manufacturing industry: The role of the green-circular premium and sustainability certification in innovative efforts. Ecological Economics, 193, 107311.

Ali, S.M., Appolloni, A., Cavallaro, F., D’Adamo, I., Di Vaio, A., Ferella, F., Gastaldi, M., Ikram, M., Kumar, N.M., Martin, M.A., et al. (2023). Development Goals towards Sustainability. Sustainability, 15, 9443.

Bebbington, J., and Unerman, J. (2018). Achieving the United Nations sustainable development goals. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal. 31(1), 2-24.

Carroll, A. B., and Brown, J. A. (2018). Corporate social responsibility: A review of current concepts, research, and issues. Corporate Social Responsibility, 2, 39-69.

D’Adamo, I., and Lupi, G. (2021). Sustainability and resilience after COVID-19: A circular premium in the fashion industry. Sustainability, 13(4), 1861.

Di Vaio, A., Hassan, R., and Palladino, R. (2023). Blockchain technology and gender equality: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Information Management, 68, 102517.

Di Vaio, A., Zaffar, A., Balsalobre-Lorente, D., and Garofalo, A. (2023). Decarbonization technology responsibility to gender equality in the shipping industry: a systematic literature review and new avenues ahead. Journal of Shipping and Trade, 8(1), 1-20.

Schaltegger, S. (2018). Linking Environmental Management Accounting: A Reflection on (Missing) Links to Sustainability and Planetary Boundaries, Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, 38 (1), 19-29.

UN Climate Change Conference UK (2021). The role of gender equality in decarbonizing transport. https://ukcop26.org/events/the-role-of-gender-equality-in-decarbonising-transport/. Accessed 13 June 2023.

United Nations (2016). The Sustainable Development Goals Report, United Nations, New York, NY.

Women, U. N. (2017). Making innovation and technology work for women. UN Women’s work in innovation and technology. New York. Recuperado a partir de La Desigualdad de Género en la Economía Digital Mexicana.

Dr. Assunta Di Vaio
Prof. Dr. Meghna Chhabra
Prof. Dr. Luigi Lepore
Guest Editors

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• SDG #5
• women empowerment
• business models
• sustainable accounting and management
• sustainability reporting
• sustainable practices
• gender equality
• women
• female
• sustainability transitions