Beyond the Transparent Barrier: A Domain Visualization and Integrative Review of Contemporary Research on...

Despite decades of policy and reforms, diversity initiatives and greater awareness about the importance of gender equality, women still remain notably absent from leadership roles in most of the countries around the world. The persistence of the glass ceiling highlights the need for a deeper understanding of the intellectual evolution and structural drivers of gendered career barriers.

A PRISMA-guided systematic literature review approach, combining knowledge domain visualization with thematic integration was used to track the glass ceiling research. Bibliographic coupling, co-citation analysis and keyword co-occurrence mapping using VOSviewer were performed which helped in identifying most influential authors, documents, countries and publication sources.

Analysis shows four interrelated thematic areas of contemporary glass ceiling research: (1) Gender Inequality in Academic and Labor Markets- How Institutions Perpetuate the Divide; (2) Breaking Through: Organizational Mechanisms & Career Pathways; (3) The Human Factor: Leadership Development & Career Identity; (4) Unlocking Potential: Diversity Initiatives & Empowerment Strategies. Guided by these insights, the study develops an integrative conceptual framework from the Antecedents-Decisions-Outcomes (ADO) perspective where structural and institutional conditions act as antecedents that frame organizational/societal and individual career decisions leading to outcomes relevant to careers such as leadership representation, advancements opportunities or gender equity in leadership positions.

This study presented a systematic integration of knowledge domain along with suggesting an ADO-based conceptual framework to provide innovative synthesis of the transdisciplinary scholarly work in contemporary glass ceiling research. These findings offer actionable lessons for policymakers, organizations and diversity practitioners who seek to implement effective interventions that will contribute to reducing systemic gender inequalities in leadership.