Global Research Trends on Gender-Based Employment Discrimination in the Workplace: A Bibliometric Analysis

Gender-based employment discrimination (GED) remains a persistent driver of workplace inequality, yet empirical and theoretical knowledge on the topic is scattered across disciplinary traditions, making it difficult to trace how the field has developed and where cumulative insights have formed. A statistically grounded science-mapping approach is therefore needed to evaluate the expanding GED literature and reveal its underlying intellectual structure. This study uses bibliometric data to map the knowledge base, thematic clusters, and emerging fronts of GED research. A total of 1,513 Scopus-indexed journal articles (2003–2023) are analyzed using VOSviewer. The field shows clear disciplinary and geographic concentration: Social Sciences is the dominant subject area, and knowledge production is concentrated in North America and Europe, with additional contributions from other high-income research contexts, suggesting that what is often read as “global” GED trends is strongly shaped by Western research infrastructures and agendas. Co-citation analysis identifies four major themes: gender roles and stereotypes; women’s work-family and childbirth conflicts; gender-segregated behaviors; and economic perspectives on workplace gender inequality, while keyword co-occurrence highlights enduring concerns alongside newer lines of inquiry related to policy change, technology/automation, and COVID-19. Findings are interpreted in terms of field maturity, structural imbalances, and emerging opportunities, offering a clearer agenda for future theory-building and evidence-informed organizational and policy interventions.