Gender Data Gap and its impact on management science - Reflections from a European perspective

As data increasingly inform every aspect of our lives, gender discrimination in the collection and application of female-based data has also risen. Because data are primarily sourced from (white) men, the solutions we design to address global problems are also primarily based on men, i.e. male bodies, male preferences and prototypical male life choices. The Gender Data Gap – referring to the circumstance that most data on which organisational decisions are based appear to be biased in favour of (white) men – describes this very absence of information about aspects of women's lives. In this article, we not only demonstrate how the Gender Data Gap (negatively) impacts society and management science, but also highlight how the gap can be overcome in the long run. Further, we showcase several initiatives, particularly European ones, that suggest opportunities to gradually close the Gender Data Gap.