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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2021.
Special Issue Editors
Interests: gender; tourism and gender; technology; research market; leadership
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Interests: psychosocial health at work; gender; leadership; emotions at work
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear colleagues,
The scope of the Special Issue ”Social Sustainability in Business from a Gender Perspective” focuses on the social part of the triple-bottom-line (TBL) model: social, environmental and financial. This interrelation between social, economic and environmental factors includes gender equality and social equity, equity in health, equity in labor rights, corporate social responsibility, and sustainable consumption, among others.
Social sustainability in business seeks to identify and manage businesses’ social impacts, both positive and negative, on society, the environment, employees, workers in the value chain, customers and local communities. For social sustainability, the especially relevant UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are SDGs referring to a) economic, financial and labor sustainability—"decent work and economic growth" (SDG8) and "reduction of inequality" (SDG10); b) socio-occupational health—"health and well-being" (ODS3); c) gender equality—“gender equality” (SDG5); d) "reduction of inequality" (SDG9); e) “build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”—(SDG10); and f) “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns” (SDG11). In this sense, the working conditions that ensure a reduction in economic and social inequalities, together with policies and organizational measures aimed at promoting health and well-being, and inclusive and sustainable industrialization consumption mean that companies are directing their actions towards the achievement of the SDGs.
Social sustainability is inherently interdisciplinary by combining gender studies, psychology, economics, finance, marketing, tourism, sustainability, ecofeminism and sociology to address the invisible dimensions of the interconnections between the interconnected dimensions of social sustainability. Different sectors take different approaches to addressing social sustainability; however, although there are numerous gendered issues and impacts that could be identified, there is a lack of studies focusing on social sustainability taking into account gender as a key factor. In this line, it is important to consider the relevant role of social responsibility to reduce gender inequality in employment and precarity in working conditions, or the special role of women in promoting a more pro-environmental and sustainable society. Additionally, the current COVID-19 pandemic environment will also play a role in how actors/businesses/citizens are addressing social responsibility, taking into account a gender perspective.
According to Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, social sustainability has five dimensions that should be considered when determining if a business or project is socially sustainable: equity, diversity, social cohesion, quality of life, democracy and governance. In this Special Issue, we invite papers that cover those dimensions from a gender perspective in different sectors (tourism and ICT, among other sectors), addressing topics including (but not limited to):
Equity:
- Gender balance and equality at workplaces;
- Working conditions/arrangements and gendered impacts;
- Work–life balance;
- Promoting decent work and economic growth.
Diversity:
- Gender diversity management.
Social cohesion:
- Social leadership, empowerment and gender.
Quality of life:
- Promoting employees’ (psycho-socio and physical) health and well-being at work.
Democracy and governance:
- Community engagement and volunteerism;
- Corporate sustainability (CSR).
Other topics regarding gender:
- “Doing gender” through social, pro-environmental and ethical actions, attitudes and values (consumption, responsible investment etc.);
- The gender impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on social sustainability in business.
To sum up, all topics related to social sustainability in gender research are of interest.
You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Societies.
Prof. Dr. Monica Segovia Pérez
Prof. Dr. Eva Cifre
Guest Editors
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 papers will be 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 1900 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.
Keywords
- social sustainability
- gender
- gender equality
- decent work
- working conditions
- health and well-being
- corporate sustainability
- women’s pro-environmental attitudes and values
- research
- COVID-19
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Title Pending Confirmation
Authors: Antonio Leon Garcia Izquierdo; et.al.
Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Oviedo, 33003 Oviedo, Spain
Abstract: Workplace harassment in the workplace is a psychosocial risk factor that increasingly affects workers in the hospitality sector, especially women. This phenomenon in Spain, is subjected to legal regulations, however, in many cases the scope and extent such regulations lack understanding. This is detrimental not only to the practice of the Courts, but to all those who have recoursed to law. The objective of this research is to carry out a qualitative documentary analysis from the point of view of the harasser and the victim in a sample of 61 sentences extracted from the database of the Judicial Documentation Center (CENDOJ) and mostly from the Superior Courts of Justice. Main results show a claiming increase during sixteen years, where women are usually victims of workplace and sexual harassment, being men mostly the harasssers through bossing practices. Most of cases reflect contract termination for victims, and the monetary compensation is quite low. Based on the results found, we developed proposals that could facilitate future lines of action in the defense and legal protection of this psychosocial phenomenon, contributing to a social sustainability promoting wellbeing at work.
Title: Empowerment vs glass ceiling. A proposed index to women advancement at the regional level in Spain.
Authors: Lidia de Castro; Víctor Martín; Rosa Santero-Sánchez
Affiliation: Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28032 Madrid, Spain
Abstract: Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a sustainable world. Over the last decades, large progresses have been made with a higher participation of women in the education, labor, social and political spheres. Nevertheless, many challenges remain, like female underrepresented leadership. The glass ceiling is a central topic of our society, and its study is gaining increasing attention at the international level. Ensuring women’s effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life is set as a specific target in the Sustainable Development Goal 5. To the best of our knowledge, while many indicators on gender equality and women empowerment has been proposed, the only existing glass ceiling index, is the one constructed by The Economist. In this paper, taking building up The Economist index and relying in the methodology of the Gender Equality Index by the European Institute for Gender Equality, we propose a new glass ceiling index calculated at the regional level (NUTS2) for Spain. The results show the presence of important differences between regions so that our regionalized approach is a valuable instrument to set priorities and target regional policy actions.
Title: Work Violence and Self-Perceived Health in Nursing Personnel: The Mediator Role of Resilience
Authors: MARIA ISABEL SOLER SANCHEZ
Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Social Psychology, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain
Abstract: Department of Psychiatry and Social Psychology, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain Abstract: Violence at work is an especially important problem in a sector as feminized as nursing. Workplace violence refers to incidents in which staff are abused, threatened or attacked in circumstances related to their work that implicitly or explicitly endanger their safety, well-being or health (ILO, CIE, WHO, IPS , 2002, p. 3). It is, therefore, any action, incident or behavior that deviates from what is reasonable by which a person is attacked, threatened, humiliated or injured by another in the exercise of his professional activity or as a consequence of it (ILO, 2003 ). Within the framework of the Resource Conservation theory, the objective of this work is to analyze the mediating and moderating role of resilience as a resource that can alleviate the loss of resources or elicit new resources in adversity situations, such as workplace violence, and that could have a positive effect on the self-perceived health of the nursing staff.