Gender Studies papers

Pofolia’s corpus holds 100 papers from Gender Studies (2002–2026), each with a short summary. Below, the 20 most-cited, then the most recently added.

At a glance

• Most cited: Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics [1989] (2018, 9,529 citations).
• The 20 papers listed have 56,187 citations between them.
• 8 of the 8 with a known journal quartile appeared in a Q1 journal.
• 4 have a free full text (open access).
• Most frequent journals: Academy of Management Journal, American Sociological Review, Cambridge University Press eBooks.
• Published between 2012 and 2024.

Most cited

Ranked by citation count. Because citations accumulate over time, this list naturally leans towards work published a few years ago; for where the field is now, see “recently added”. How to read the signals

• Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics [1989]

  2018 · FWCI 2589.88 · 9,529 citations

  This chapter introduces Black feminist criticism, arguing that treating race and sex as separate categories erases Black women's experiences within legal, feminist, and political frameworks.

  Go to source →

• Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics

  2018 · FWCI 1382.57 · 7,310 citations · Open access

  This chapter argues that dominant single-axis frameworks in law, feminist theory, and antiracist politics erase Black women by focusing on the experiences of privileged group members, distorting the analysis of racism and sexism.

  Go to source →

• The Cultural Politics of Emotion

  2013 · FWCI 254.08 · 4,697 citations

  This work argues that emotions are central to political identity and power, and explores how they can be leveraged by feminist and queer movements.

  Go to source →

• Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies: Theory, Applications, and Praxis

  Signs · 2013 · Q1 · FWCI 167.12 · 3,971 citations

  This paper proposes a new field of "intersectional studies" by fusing theoretical applications, methodological debates, and political interventions related to intersectionality.

  Go to source →

• The Evolution of Parental Care

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2019 · FWCI 54.03 · 3,163 citations

  This book synthesizes animal studies to explain why parental care varies across species, the roles of males and females, and how care is adjusted based on offspring benefits and parental costs.

  Go to source →

• Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2012 · Q1 · SJR 3.00 · FWCI 241.46 · 3,143 citations · Open access

  Science faculty at research-intensive universities rated identical student applications, assigning male applicants significantly higher competence, hireability, starting salary, and mentoring than female applicants.

  Go to source →

• White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (1989) 1

  2019 · FWCI 727.80 · 2,595 citations

  Men often deny or resist acknowledging male privilege, even when they concede women's disadvantages, protecting this unearned advantage from being addressed or dismantled.

  Go to source →

• Visual methodologies : an introduction to researching with visual materials

  2012 · FWCI 115.83 · 2,318 citations

  This classic text offers a step-by-step guide to researching with visual materials, providing key skills and rationale for interpreting images.

  Go to source →

• Bananas, Beaches and Bases

  2014 · FWCI 118.17 · 2,132 citations

  Cynthia Enloe's radical analysis reveals that women's personal strategies, from marriage to coping with beauty ideals, are fundamental to global politics.

  Go to source →

• Discipline and Punish

  2013 · 2,112 citations

  Michel Foucault's "Discipline and Punish" is analyzed not just as a historical and philosophical work, but as radical social criticism that influenced queer theory.

  Go to source →

• A Theory of Racialized Organizations

  American Sociological Review · 2019 · Q1 · SJR 3.00 · FWCI 242.18 · 1,923 citations · Open access

  This paper proposes a new theory that organizations are not race-neutral but are inherently racial structures, shaping how racial groups interact with resources and how inequality is maintained.

  Go to source →

• Women on Boards and Firm Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis

  Academy of Management Journal · 2014 · Q1 · SJR 10.00 · FWCI 13.28 · 1,856 citations

  Combining 140 studies, this meta-analysis finds that having women on corporate boards is positively linked to accounting returns, especially in countries with stronger shareholder protections. The relationship with market performance varies, being positive in countries with greater gender parity.

  Go to source →

• Revisiting Event-Study Designs: Robust and Efficient Estimation

  The Review of Economic Studies · 2024 · Q1 · SJR 23.00 · FWCI 1026.61 · 1,840 citations · Open access

  New difference-in-differences methods are developed for staggered adoption and heterogeneous effects, offering an efficient estimator that overcomes limitations of conventional regression approaches.

  Go to source →

• The Changing of the Boards: The Impact on Firm Valuation of Mandated Female Board Representation *

  The Quarterly Journal of Economics · 2012 · Q1 · SJR 33.00 · FWCI 111.80 · 1,589 citations

  Norway's 2003 law mandating 40% female board representation led to a significant drop in firm stock prices and Tobin's Q, indicating that firms were forced to compromise value-maximizing board compositions.

  Go to source →

• Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines

  Science · 2015 · Q1 · SJR 10.00 · FWCI 180.02 · 1,510 citations

  Academic fields that emphasize innate talent for success show greater gender imbalance, with women underrepresented where 'brilliance' is prioritized over effort.

  Go to source →

• Dude, You’re a Fag

  2020 · FWCI 81.82 · 1,373 citations

  This ethnography reveals how the "specter of the fag" functions as a disciplinary mechanism to regulate masculinity among heterosexual and homosexual boys in a working-class high school.

  Go to source →

• An Introduction to Visual Culture

  2023 · FWCI 52.49 · 1,312 citations

  This paper introduces the field of visual culture by tracing its history and theory, examining how visual media became central to contemporary life.

  Go to source →

• 19. The Second Treatise of Government

  Democracy · 2016 · FWCI 420.45 · 1,287 citations

  John Locke presents a theory of civil society, positing a more stable state of nature than Hobbes and asserting the inherent equality of all individuals.

  Go to source →

• The Benefits of Climate for Inclusion for Gender-Diverse Groups

  Academy of Management Journal · 2012 · Q1 · SJR 10.00 · FWCI 29.39 · 1,266 citations

  A new 'climate for inclusion' construct is introduced, which reduces interpersonal bias and conflict in gender-diverse groups, thereby eliminating the negative impact of conflict on unit-level satisfaction.

  Go to source →

• Language and Gender

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2013 · FWCI 67.81 · 1,261 citations

  This book argues that the connections between language and gender are deep yet fluid, arising in social practice and often involving conflict and competing norms.

  Go to source →

Recently added

• Implementing Sexual Safety in Inpatient Mental Health: Staff Perspectives on Training

  International Journal of Mental Health Nursing · 2026 · Q1 · SJR 1.00

  A co-designed staff training package (the Welcome Project) improved awareness of sexual safety in an Australian mental health unit, but education alone was insufficient to support routine discussions, according to interviews with 11 clinicians.

  Go to source →

• Influence of the mentoring relationship between board chairs and women CEOs on firm performance in Australia: a social role perspective

  International Journal of Disclosure and Governance · 2026 · Q2

  In Australian ASX-100 firms, mentoring from board chairs does not close the gender gap for women CEOs and may even widen it, according to a social role theory analysis of 2010-2020 data.

  Go to source →

• Examining perceived influence of gender-sensitive leadership practices on educational achievement of senior high school girls from low income households in Bolgatanga municipality

  Social Sciences & Humanities Open · 2026 · Q1

  Gender-sensitive leadership practices are perceived as moderately supportive of the schooling of senior high school girls from low-income households in Ghana's Bolgatanga Municipality, though significant socio-cultural and structural barriers continue to hinder their educational experiences.

  Go to source →

• Soft propaganda and the marginalized childcare policy in China

  The History of the Family · 2026 · Q1

  China's government has systematically delegated childcare responsibility to families and the market, marginalizing it to state agendas like women's labor mobilization and fertility stimulation, using soft propaganda techniques to ensure public compliance.

  Go to source →

• Powerful or Powerless? The Influence of Gender Advocates in Peace Negotiations

  Journal of Conflict Resolution · 2026 · Q1 · SJR 1.00

  Gender advocates in peace negotiations increase the likelihood of agreements including provisions for women, but their overall influence is hindered by the masculinized structure of negotiations, making them simultaneously powerful and powerless.

  Go to source →

• Is It Who You Are or What You Do? Gender-Based Occupational Segregation and Pay Inequities in State-Level Public Sector Leadership Positions

  State and Local Government Review · 2026 · Q2

  Women are underrepresented and underpaid in state public sector leadership, with gender significantly predicting salary despite parity in some administrative/professional positions.

  Go to source →

• Gender, merit, and social capital in national accreditation: time to tenure‑track promotion in spanish management and organization studies

  Tertiary Education and Management · 2026 · Q2 · Open access

  In Spanish Management and Organization Studies, accreditation processes for associate professor positions take slightly less time than for full professor positions, and higher h-indices and supervisor prestige are associated with faster processing, while stronger co-authorship ties lengthen it. Gender did not significantly impact processing time when controlling for other factors, though exploratory analysis suggests potential gender and rank differences in the merit-processing time association.

  Go to source →

• Prevalence and disclosure of AI and non-AI online child sexual victimisation: Findings from a national study of Australian adolescents

  Child Abuse & Neglect · 2026 · Q1 · SJR 1.00 · Open access

  One in 25 Australian adolescents experienced or knew a friend who experienced AI-facilitated online child sexual victimisation, with AI involved in 26% of nonconsensual image sharing.

  Go to source →

Journals in this field

The journals that publish most of this field’s papers. Quartile (Q1–Q4), SJR and h-index are from SCImago Journal Rank; “in this field” is how many of the journal’s pooled papers belong here. What is a Q1 journal? · What is the h-index?

Every journal in Gender Studies (Q1–Q4) →

Other subfields in Social Sciences

• Anthropology
• Archeology (Social Sciences)
• Geography, Planning and Development
• Demography
• Linguistics and Language
• Education
• General Social Sciences
• Safety Research
• Law
• Communication
• Human Factors and Ergonomics
• Development

All subfields of Social Sciences →

← All fields