Mapping the relevance and influence of gender in social economy enterprises: A review based on bibliographic analysis

Received: 29 March 2024 Revised: 9 April 2025 Accepted: 23 April 2025 DOI: 10.1111/apce.12508 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Mapping the relevance and influence of gender in social economy enterprises: A review based on bibliographic analysis Esther García-Río1Francisco Rincon-Roldan2 Pedro Baena-Luna3 1Department of Financial Economics and Operations Management, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Andalucia, Spain 2Department of Business Organization and Marketing, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Andalucia, Spain 3Department of Business Administration and Marketing, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Andalucia, Spain Correspondence Francisco Rincon-Roldan, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Andalucía, Spain. Email: [email protected] Funding information Funding for open access publishing: Universidad Pablo de Olavide /CBUA. Abstract The reality of the social economy has traditionally given rise to various debates and has been examined from different perspectives by academia. In this article, we conductedanin-depth studythroughabibliometric analysis of the scientific literature that addresses the reality of the social economy (in its different expressions) from a gender perspective. This enabled the establishment of the conceptual, intellectual and social structure of the scientific research literature related to these two realities. Among 703 initial articles derived from Web of Science and Scopus queries, 250 were studied and processed using the Bibliometrix tool after harmonization. The findings reveal the world’s leading positions of Spain and the United Kingdom in terms of related scientific production,whichisreflectedaswellinthecaseofscientific collaboration networks. Also relevant is the finding of women’s empowerment in the social economy as an emerging topic related to Sustainable Development Goal 5, ‘Gender equality’. These results will help researchers understand and acknowledge the social economy as a reality inherently connected to the gender perspective, This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. © 2024 The Author(s). Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Edgard Milhaud Foundation. Ann Public Coop Econ. 2025;1–21. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/apce 1 2GARCÍA-RÍO et al. promoting a more cohesive academic community that will lay the groundwork for future research. KEYWORDS bibliometric analysis, gender, social economy, social enterprise, third sector JEL CLASSIFICATION B55, L31, J16 1 INTRODUCTION The social economy (SE) has given rise to various debates and has been approached from different perspectives by academia (Bansal et al., 2022). Due to the current social and economic situation, social economy entities are being postulated as an honest and emerging alternative to the traditional economy, particularly for the employees of business organizations (Storti et al., 2022). Among the elements that characterize social economy entities, self-management stands out above all others (Franklin et al., 2021). This endows them with personality and marks their organizational culture, bringing together in a balanced way three fundamental pillars: person, organization and society (Rincon-Roldan & Lopez-Cabrales, 2021). This study addresses the need to delve into the management of SE organizations to explain the integration of the gender perspective in their management and development (Leal-Filho et al., 2023), offering a theoretical model that describes how these types of organizations contribute to the management of diversity related to the incorporation of women into the labour market. In the last 25 years, there have been critical socio-demographic changes (Alves et al., 2024) characterized by the growth of immigration, the aging of the population, the viewpoint and consideration of disability (Dindarian, 2023), the consolidation of the rights of vulnerable people or those at risk of exclusion and, inevitably, the incorporation of women into the labour market (Padrón et al., 2023). This last circumstance is addressed in this article, providing a starting point for understanding the commitment and responsibility of SE entities in including women in the labour market (Predețeanu-Dragne et al., 2019). Of the principles and values that make up the idiosyncrasy of social entities, the management of diversity stands out (Ben-Ner, 2018). This is related to the coherence with the way these types of entities operate, making use of the diverse capabilities of people, regardless of their gender, and adapting the organization to the differences present in an increasingly heterogeneous workforce. This is strongly related to the identity and social principles of the SE(Dubéetal.,2014). Inthisstudy, and using theBibliometrixtool(Aria& Cuccurullo,2017),thestructureofresearch in the field of social economics and gender was analysed, as well as its development over time, enabling the identification of clusters of topics, networks of authors and gaps in the literature (Block & Fisch, 2020), allowing us to answer the following research questions: RQ1: What have been the most influential journals and authors in social economy research from a gender perspective? RQ2: What are the primary research networks in the realities being studied? Which countries lead this scientific production, and which keywords are the most used? 14678292, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apce.12508 by Readcube (Labtiva Inc.), Wiley Online Library on [19/05/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License MAPPING THE RELEVANCE AND INFLUENCE OF GENDER 3 RQ3: What is the evolution within research trends on the social economy when approaching this reality from a gender perspective? The answers to these questions will help to achieve the objectives of this study: Firstly, although studies from a gender perspective are not new in the business world, they have been carried out using different approaches rather than reflecting the reality of the SE. This undoubtedly hinders the study and understanding of the social economy’s reality from a gender perspective. Secondly, based on scientific database searches and the results of this work, there appears to be a lack of exhaustive and current bibliographic reviews that accurately reflect the current state of knowledge and the latest advances in research related to the realities of the SE and gender studies. The general objective of this study was to identify trends in SE research from a gender perspective, providing a foundation for future studies by synthesizing the core elements of existing knowledge. For this reason, this research contributes to the scientific literature on the SE, providingclearandpreciseevidenceofhowthescientificcommunityaddressesthisrealityfromagender perspective. Thus, it responds to recent demands to advance and deepen the joint study of these two realities, as noted by Lee (2023). At the same time, identifying research trends and knowledge structures enables the recognition of underexplored yet promising areas, as well as potential inconsistencies in the literature that may have hindered the development of gender-focussed studies within the SE. This article has the following structure. After this introduction, we present the theoretical framework that guided our study of the two fundamental variables of our research: gender and the SE. Next, we present the methodology applied and conclude with the preliminary results obtained from the research work. 2 EXISTING LITERATURE REVIEW ON THE SOCIAL ECONOMY AND GENDER Our research focusses on entities considered part of the SE. This sector presents an economic model of worldwide interest, primarily due to its viability and sustainability, which has a significant impact on employment generation (Schoneveld, 2020). Currently, the SE accounts for over 7% of the world’s GDP and employment, comprising 2.8 million firms and 13.6 million jobs (World Cooperative Monitor, 2024). 2.1 Gender perspective in the labour market Numerous studies on employment and gender have highlighted the significant challenges women face in securing employment (Mia et al., 2023). Additionally, numerous studies from a gender perspective examine how gender influences the positions held by women and men in business organizations (Yamini et al., 2022). The incorporation of women into the labour market began in the mid-20th century, with female employment rates rising significantly, currently exceeding 47% of the global active population, 14678292, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apce.12508 by Readcube (Labtiva Inc.), Wiley Online Library on [19/05/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 4GARCÍA-RÍO et al. according to the International Labor Organization. These changes resulted from global economic, social and cultural shifts, which increased women’s participation in labor, politics and society (Paderna et al., 2020). Today, there needs to be a distinguishing between employment and gender for two key reasons: women’s difficulty accessing stable, quality jobs and the impact of their inclusion on family, social and economic models. In labour economics, work is defined as remunerated, productive activity within the market. Salaried work refers to paid labour, whether in the public or private sector, formal or informal, and across various industries. One of the driving forces behind the incorporation of women into the labour market is the significant changes in the traditional model of family organization, which has given way to a model in which women combine work inside and outside the family nucleus (Bhatnagar & Aggarwal, 2020). The analysis of women’s problems in the labour market is significantly marked by gender discrimination,which in turn is conditionedbythe sexualdivisionboth in the work environmentand in the social context in general (Ridley-Duff, 2008). Classic economic studies have acknowledged women’s essential role in household and family care activities, including child-rearing and elder care. However, these activities are not regarded as economically valuable or productive work, as domestic labour is excluded from economic activity, which only considers remunerated work. Recent studies (Jain et al., 2023;Trianaetal.,2021) propose the following as the main challenges for achieving effective gender equality in organizations. Firstly, organizations must promote gender diversity and equal opportunities by ensuring transparency in policies, such as those related to professional development and salaries. The challenge lies in overcoming stereotypes, integrating justice and equality into management practices and embracing human resources (HR) diversity, which has a positive impact on talent, leadership and profitability (Yu & Madison, 2021). Secondly, regarding women in management positions, one of the main barriers for women in the workplace is balancing their professional careers with family responsibilities. In this sense, maternity is still considered by women as an essential barrier that hinders their professional development towards managerial positions. The challenge focusses on facilitating work flexibility, combining personal and professional life and abandoning excessively rigid organizational models (Hart & Baruch, 2022). Thirdly, concerning the removal of stereotypes, these are one of the main obstacles to women’s professional development within organizations. This is due to the organization’s biased evaluation of stereotypical female traits, leading to disparities in equity and equal opportunities. The challenge for organizations is to integrate a gender perspective into decisionmaking processes and organizational culture, impacting human resource practices related to gender recognition, remuneration and professional development (Triana et al., 2021). This highlights how gender equality in the labour market depends on legislative changes that ensure equal productive roles for both women and men, as well as organizational culture modifications that support family reconciliation, facilitating women’s integration and reentry into the labour market (Juliá Igual et al., 2022). 2.2 Gender in the social economy Akeyprinciple of the SEis to give women visibility in organizations,positioningthemas essential, regardless of their role (Nguyen et al., 2023). This responds to the growing participation of women in the labour market, which affects workforce composition, working conditions, specialization and professional prospects, differing from those in traditional market firms (Paderna et al., 2020). 14678292, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apce.12508 by Readcube (Labtiva Inc.), Wiley Online Library on [19/05/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License MAPPING THE RELEVANCE AND INFLUENCE OF GENDER 5 Although equity and equality are among the ethical principles and values promoted by the SE (Rincon-Roldan & Lopez-Cabrales, 2021), certain gender-related inequalities persist in SE organizations. These issues are manifested in the low participation of women in management, leading to their underrepresentation in strategic decision making. Social expectations for women are often less considered than for men, limiting their professional development and participation. In 2015, the UN approved the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, providing countries and societies with an opportunity to improve the lives of all, ensuring that no one is left behind. The 2030 Agenda has 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that seek to balance our society’s economic, social and environmental development (Fonseca et al., 2020). These range from eradicating poverty to combating climate change, encompassing education, women’s equality, environmental protection and urban design. Specifically, SDG 5 seeks to achieve gender equality, showing the need to intensify the application of measures for the development of equality plans within organizations to ensure the effective participation of women and equal opportunities in leadership roles at all decision-making levels in organizations, as well as in political and public entities. In 2023, the OECD published ‘Beyond Pink-Collar Jobs for Women and the Social Economy’ (OECD, 2023), an analysis of women’s employment in the SE. The report examines challenges in integrating women fairly and equally into these structures and offers policy recommendations to recognize women’s work and leadership. It highlights how the SE can drive gender equality, provide jobs for women and reduce the $12 trillion global economic cost of gender wage gaps due to discrimination in laws and social norms. 3METHODOLOGY Bibliometric analysis facilitates the synthesis of results from previous research, a crucial task in advancing a specific line of inquiry. Moreover, this technique enables the unraveling of the evolutionary nuances within a particular field while shedding light on emerging areas in that field (Zupic & Čater, 2015). This study employed a bibliometric analysis to address the research questions by identifying the areas of scientific production that are most concentrated, as well as their trends. For the bibliometric study, Bibliometrix, developed by Aria and Cuccurullo (2017), was used, which allows comprehensively analysing the scientific mapping of a research topic as an open source tool for the thorough analysis of the scientific literature. The first step was to determine the search strategy for identifying the relevant literature. This involved selecting the databases for the literature search, defining the search terms and keywords used to identify the relevant literature and describing the practical and methodological criteria for selection and exclusion (Fisch & Block, 2018). It was decided to use Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. These are the leading and competitive bibliographic databases worldwide (Pranckut˙ e, 2021). The Scopus database has the advantage of containing data for all cited references, making author-based citation and co-citation analyses more accurate (Zupic & Čater, 2015). The search keywords in both databases were ‘social economy’, ‘third sector’ and ‘social enterprise’, together with the term ‘gender’ in the search field (article title, abstract and keywords). 14678292, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apce.12508 by Readcube (Labtiva Inc.), Wiley Online Library on [19/05/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 6GARCÍA-RÍO et al. TABLE 1 A database search was used to find relevant articles that had been published. Database Web of Science Scopus Search using a complex query and exclusions “Social Economy” AND “gender” (TOPIC) OR “Third sector*” AND “gender” (TOPIC) OR “social enterprise*” AND “gender” (TOPIC) TITLE-ABS-KEY (“Social Economy” AND “gender”) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (“Third sector*” AND “gender”) OR TITLE-ABS-KEY (“social enterprise*” AND “gender”) Total 332 371 Source: Author´s elaboration. 3.1 Inclusion and exclusion criteria As the first inclusion criterion, it was determined in the searches that the publication language should be English or Spanish and that the type of document should be an article, with no time restriction. The decision to apply the language criterion was based on the fact that, firstly, English is generally considered the universal language of science (Morrison et al., 2012), and, secondly, Spain plays a vital role as a country producing research in this field, and the Spanish language, in particular, is one of the most widely used in research works related to the SE (Macías-Ruano et al., 2021). Proof of this is the prominent place occupied in our study by scientific journals that publish in this language, such as CIRIEC-España, Revista de Economía Pública, Social y Cooperativa and Revesco-Revista de Estudios Cooperativos. As this research field has been developed over several decades, it was decided to exclude conference articles, working papers and other non– peer-reviewed literature, focussing on peer-reviewed articles (Linnenluecke et al., 2020). To find out the evolution of research in this field since its beginnings, it was decided not to apply a time restriction, including articles up to July 2024. On the other hand, an exclusion criterion related to the area of research in which the article is classified was applied, determining that it should belong to one of the following areas: ‘Business Economics’, ‘Business, Management, and Accounting’ or ‘Social Sciences’. It was considered appropriate to exclude journal articles that employ questionable business practices, apply minimal peer review or limited editorial oversight and meet minimal quality standards (Ross-White et al., 2019). The searches performed in WoS and Scopus are presented in Table 1. 3.2 Data extraction The next step was to unify the results using the statistical software R and its associated editor, RStudio. WoS data were extracted in plain text document format, and Scopus data in .bib format. R Studio allows unifying both files into a single file by running the ‘tors’ package. Once the unification of the results from both databases has been performed, it is necessary to remove duplicate documents from the analysis and discard studies that are not relevant (‘false positives’) or address a different or unrelated topic, by reviewing the title, abstract and keywords of each record (Linnenluecke et al., 2020). The complete process is shown in Figure 1. 14678292, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apce.12508 by Readcube (Labtiva Inc.), Wiley Online Library on [19/05/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License MAPPING THE RELEVANCE AND INFLUENCE OF GENDER 7 FIGURE 1 Flowchart of the research methodology. Source: Author’s elaboration. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] 3.3 Statistical analysis Once the final dataset of 250 articles had been unified, homogenized and harmonized, the Bibliometrix package, along with its Biblioshiny interface, was run from RStudio for data processing and the visual presentation of the analysis results. The value provided by this research lies in its methodology, which is based on a bibliometric analysis utilizing unified data from WoS and Scopus, as few studies have combined the two databases in a single analysis (Caputo & Kargina, 2022). 4RESULTS The analysis of the data collected from the databases began with a descriptive study of the 250 articles under study. This analysis shows the total data on publications, authors (single and coauthored), productivity, sources, citation metrics and collaboration indexes (Table 2). The first results present a chronological map of the field, showing the evolution of studies per year and highlighting influential authors, journals and publications. Subsequent results focus on topic evolution, including co-occurrence analysis and bibliometric linkage, essential components of any bibliographic study (Block & Fisch, 2020). The analysis based on the articles’ authorship is structured into three indicators: (1) productivity indicators, which measure the number of articles per author; (2) quality indicators, which measure the quality of a researcher’s production; and (3) structural indicators, which measure the connections between publications, authors and research areas (Durieux & Gevenois, 2010). Performance analysis provides information on the production and impact of a specific area of research, focussing on the most salient measures: the number of publications and citations per year. Publication is anindicatorofproductivity,whilecitationisameasure of impact and influence (Donthu et al., 2021). Figure 2shows the trends in the annual number of publications on the SE and gender studies. The first publication dates to 1984; however, significant growth in the study area was not observed until 2009. Between 1984 and 2008, research in this area was conducted intermittently, resulting 14678292, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apce.12508 by Readcube (Labtiva Inc.), Wiley Online Library on [19/05/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 8GARCÍA-RÍO et al. TABLE 2 Data set summary. Description Results Timespan 1984:2024 Sources (journals) 168 Documents (articles) 250 Document average age 5.34 Average citations per doc 13.91 References 3897 Keywords plus 490 Author’s keywords 837 Authors 597 Authors of single-authored docs 62 Single-authored docs 65 Co-authors per doc 2.49 International co-authorships % 5.6 Source: Author´s elaboration. FIGURE 2 Growth in scientific production. Source: Author´s elaboration. in eight articles. In the second stage, from 2009 to 2024, research in this area experienced a significant surge, with 242 articles published. The number of publications peaked in 2024, reaching 39 from January to September of that year. The scientific production followed a regression model with an increasing trend, yielding a coefficient of determination (R2)of90.67%.Thesmall number of articles published in the first years indicates that interest in this study area began to develop in 2009 and is currently growing. The growth potential of the SE in times of economic and social crisis has been repeatedly highlighted as a model of resilience (European Economic & Social Committee, 2017). The growing focus on the third sector and gender perspective reflects the sector’s recent progress and the need to study women’s position within it. The importance of disaggregating data and highlighting inequalities, along with the increasing leadership of women, has driven the growth of scientific literature. Key milestones in 2022, including the ILO’s Resolution on decent work, the OECD’s Council Recommendation and the EU’s Action Plan for the SE, underscore the sector’s growing importance and visibility. Table 3shows the research quality of the 10 most prolific authors, who account for more than 8% of the total production. According to the percentage of publications concerning the total, no 14678292, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apce.12508 by Readcube (Labtiva Inc.), Wiley Online Library on [19/05/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License MAPPING THE RELEVANCE AND INFLUENCE OF GENDER 9 TABLE 3 Authors with the largest number of publications. Author h_index g_index m_index TC NP PY_start Esteban-Salvador, M. L. 4 5 0.333 41 5 2013 Castro-Nuñez, B. 1 1 0.111 3 4 2016 Gargallo-Castel, A. 3 3 0.333 27 3 2016 Hossein, C. 2 2 0.167 45 22013 Javaid, A. 2 2 0.250 18 2 2017 Marconatto, D. 2 2 0.333 18 22019 Nicolas, C. 2 2 0.222 56 2 2016 Warnecke, T. 2 2 0.182 43 22014 Wegner, D. 2 2 0.333 18 2 2019 Abd, W. S. 1 1 0.500 3 1 2023 Addicott, K. 1 1 0.125 14 1 2017 Abbreviations: h_index, number of articles with some citations greater than or equal to h; g_index, the (unique) largest number such that the top g articles received (together) at least g 2 citations, m_index: shows the h-index per year since the first publication; TC, times cited; NP, number of publications; PY_start, publication year starting. Source: Author´s elaboration. author can be seen as a reference in the subject. Esteban-Salvador, M.L. from the University of Zaragoza (Spain), is in the lead, with five articles and the highest levels of author metrics, including the h-index, g-index, and m-index. The most cited authors are among the least prolific, with only one article and 169 citations: Haugh, H. (University of Cambridge) and Talwar, A., a private-sector professional specializing in corporate social responsibility, corporate sustainability, diversity and inclusion. Far behind, with several citations, but among the authors with more than one publication, is Nicolás, C., from the University of Murcia (Spain), with 56 citations. In 2010, the author established a social action association in rural areas to address the imbalances in her region. In 2017, this initiative led to the initiation of specific research focussed on the role of women as drivers of transformation and development in rural areas. This fact may explain her large number of citations in the SE and gender. The evolution over time of the authors with the largest number of publications is shown in Figure 3. Among the most prolific authors, Esteban-Salvador, M.L. and Hossein, C. were the first authors to publish in 2013, and they continued to develop research in this area for 6 and 4 years, respectively. The longest research career in time is that of Castro-Nuñez, B., which spans 8 years and continues to the present day. The two articles by Nicolas, C. published in 2016 are a reference in the field, due to the late entry into this area of study. Nicolas, C. focusses on the gender gap in social enterprises, the profile of the social entrepreneur and the influence of gender in the management of cooperative societies. Thirteen authors were identified with two publications. Hossein, C. was the first of these authors to publish an article on the SE in 2013. In it, she discusses informal banks where AfroCaribbean women with scarce resources create alternative financial programs as part of an SE. Regarding the number of citations, the most cited article is by Haugh and Talwar (2016), with 169 citations, which examines the relationships between social entrepreneurship, empowerment and social change in a rural social enterprise in Northern India. 14678292, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apce.12508 by Readcube (Labtiva Inc.), Wiley Online Library on [19/05/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 16 GARCÍA-RÍO et al. FIGURE 11 Thematic evolution. Source: Author’s elaboration. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] ference, on decent work and the SE and subsequent ones. This has given rise to action plans focussed on the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women, youth and people with disabilities and in situations of vulnerability, through multilevel and participatory governance. This has appropriate financing policies for the SE, entrepreneurship and innovation with a cross-sectoral vision seeking a socially committed, sustainable and collaborative growth. 5DISCUSSION The results reveal the current state of scientific activity and its evolution concerning the third sector, the SE and gender. The bibliometric indicators provide information on the dynamics of scientific production in this area of social research, enabling us to identify trends in activity, track the path followed and inform decisions about future research. Theresultswereanalysed,addressing the researchquestionsandachievingthearticle’sprimary objective. RQ1: The 250 analysed documents were written by 597 authors, with a co-authorship rate of 2.39 authors per document. This result suggests a reduced collaboration in publications on the subject under study, a trend also representative of the social sciences (Gómez Velasco et al., 2021). Of the total number of authors, 96.6% have published only one article, 2.84% have published two articles and only one author has published five articles, showing the lack of explicit references in this area of research. The authors’ affiliations are primarily with institutions in Spain and the United Kingdom, countries with extensive experience in the field and a significant number of publications. The sources with the most publications are directly related to the field of study, that is, journals specialized in the SE. The three journals with the most publications are CIRIEC-España Revista de Economía Pública Social y Cooperativa,Voluntas and Revesco-Revista de Estudios Cooperativos, accounting for 20.4% of the publications, whereas 57.6% of the sources published only one article, with only five journals publishing more than five articles on this research topic. RQ2: This is resolved by identifying the most productive countries and keywords. Several notable collaborations are evident in the collaboration network among authors, institutions and countries. The two leading countries in scientific production are Spain and the United King14678292, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apce.12508 by Readcube (Labtiva Inc.), Wiley Online Library on [19/05/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License MAPPING THE RELEVANCE AND INFLUENCE OF GENDER 17 dom, accounting for 48.8% of the world’s scientific production, followed by the United States and Canada, with 20.4%. The keywords indicate that the topics addressed in the study are related, on the one hand, to specific terms associated with the SE and the third sector, and on the other hand, to the terms related to gender or equality. The word with the most significant presence is ‘gender’, with 78 occurrences, followed by ‘social enterprise’, with 38 occurrences, and ‘social entrepreneurship’, with 36 occurrences. It is a weak and underdeveloped network. RQ3: This is resolved by the trend analysis results of the thematic evolution and the thematic map. Since the publication of the first related article, there has been an evolution. The areas encompassedby these terms haveexpandedover the years, with the introductionof new,generally accepted terms such as ‘social economy’ and ‘third sector’. The ‘social economy’ topic emerged later and evolved into ‘cooperatives’ and ‘gender equality’. It is also noteworthy to mention the introduction of the term ‘empowerment’, which emerged in the second decade of the new millennium, as well as the related topic of women in management. There is a continuing interest in issues related to gender differences, economic development and entrepreneurship. The answers to the research questions reveal the impact of gender on SE entities at a global level. Although there has been an increase in the number of publications on the inclusion of gender in the SE, there is still a long way to go. Works such as those by Macías-Ruano et al. (2021) demonstrate the emergence of studies on the SE and the broad scope of gender research within this field. 5.1 Theoretical implications The analysis of the results obtained after applying the bibliometric methodology and the subsequent systematic review of the literature on the works under study allows us to confirm the evolution in the scientific literature related to the SE, treating this reality from a gender perspective. Although the scientific production addressing these two realities has increased, this growth has been irregular since the first work was published in 1984. It was not until the beginning of the 21st century that regular production emerged. This almost non-existent production in the related scientific literature of the 20th century and its irregular behaviour in the first years of the 21st century show that, although academics are paying greater attention to connecting the phenomenon of the SE to necessary fields of study, such as the gender approach, this continues to present some gaps for research and analysis. Hence, two prominent and fundamental implications can be drawn. Firstly, this work reveals the importance of analysing the inequalities referring to gender within organizations, as well as the different barriers faced by women in the workplace, offering society a greater visibility of this reality, and, secondly, we address the gender approach within the SE, thus contributing to its understanding and focussing on the shortcomings of this research topic in this field of study. This means that, from a theoretical perspective, our work can be considered a starting point in the research connected to both realities, which will undoubtedly serve as a reference point for future research to expand and develop the content of our study. 5.2 Practical implications Thepotentialpracticalimplications ofthe resultsderivedfromthisworkarealsoimportant. These can be highlighted from two main points of view: 14678292, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apce.12508 by Readcube (Labtiva Inc.), Wiley Online Library on [19/05/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License 18 GARCÍA-RÍO et al. For public administrators responsible for designing and implementing policies that support the SE, the results reveal the primary themes and connections from a gender perspective, lending this scientific production significant value as a resource for consultation and study. In addition, this valuable information can guide future research efforts and policy formulation initiatives, directing attention to specific gender and work–life balance policies as well as target areas where the necessary linkage between economics and gender may have the most substantial influence. Our results can also benefit the heads and managers of companies included in the SE by enabling them to access and learn about the development and implementation of actions that favor these companies’ management and decision-making processes from a gender perspective. 5.3 Limitations and future lines of research This study has several limitations that should be noted. The first limitation pertains to the bibliographic search, where the risk of missing relevant articles exists due to errors in keyword selection and potential personal bias in the process (Mitter et al., 2024). A second limitation is the focus on peer-reviewed articles in English or Spanish from WoS and Scopus, excluding other sources such as conference proceedings, reports or dissertations. The last limitation refers to the geographical scope of the study, which was focussed on databases that mostly bring together works from the American and European continents of the Global North. Nevertheless, the SE is a global phenomenon, present in all parts of the world, thus we believe that approaching this type of study using other statistical techniques could be interesting, including other geographical areas such as the Global South, with countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Regarding the future lines of research stemming from this study, it is worth noting that our results exclude cultural information from different countries. For this reason, we plan to conduct a new research segmenting and comparing different geographical contexts but with similar cultures. 6 CONCLUSIONS This article aims to provide a review of social economics from a gender perspective, examining the evolutionary trajectory of this field of research and its theoretical and practical implications. Previous studies have focussed on the SE in a general way without highlighting the role of gender within it. This research methodologically contrasts with previous bibliographic reviews as it unifies the results obtained from two databases, thereby reinforcing the findings. This methodology enabled the analysis of a more significant number of articles and bibliographic references compared to other studies. Relevant conclusions can be drawn from the analysis and discussion of the results of this work. Spain and the United Kingdom are two world-leading countries in terms of scientific production that addresses the reality of the SE, incorporating the necessary gender perspective strongly demanded by society nowadays. Women’s rights in the European context have been a priority for the European Parliament since the Treaty of Amsterdam, which established women’s presence in both the social and labour spheres of society through the proclamation of the principle of equality, recognizing equal pay for equal work for the first time. Spain, in addition to being the first 14678292, 0, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apce.12508 by Readcube (Labtiva Inc.), Wiley Online Library on [19/05/2025]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License MAPPING THE RELEVANCE AND INFLUENCE OF GENDER 19 EU Member State to develop a legal framework for the SE, imposing pay transparency, reducing the wage gap and feminizing decision making, has promoted the creation of a group of Women Leaders of the Social Economy focussed on raising awareness of the role of women at the highest levels of the SE. The leadership of the two countries in related scientific production is also evident in their scientific collaboration networks on these two topics. Once again, these two countries stand out for their preferential interaction regarding research on SE and gender. This, in turn, conditions the origin of the studies addressed to a specific part of the European continent and worldwide research. As mentioned in the limitations, gender and SE coexist on all continents; however, the sources of information for our research and scientific journals do not have the same relevance and impact in each of these areas, which is an essential limitation of our study. However, it represents a new advance in the existing literature on the relevance of gender in SE. An emerging theme within the related scientific production is women’s empowerment within the SE, not only in positions of management responsibility but also in all those involving decisionmaking processes. In this sense, the United Nations considers gender equality a fundamental right, regardless of a person’s country of residence, and its importance has led to the creation of SDG 5: ‘Gender Equality’. ORCID EstherGarcía-Río https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2957-6666 Francisco Rincon-Roldan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1181-9703 Pedro Baena-Luna https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8509-0222 REFERENCES Alves, J., Lima, T. M., & Gaspar, P. D. 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