Including gender dimension in operations management teaching

Abstract

Purpose: This paper aims at introducing the importance and the relevant concepts and tools for including gender dimension in teaching, with a special focus in the Operations Management knowledge field.

Design/methodology/approach: The methodology is based on a literature review and on the knowledge and experience of the authors in teaching in the field of Operations Management and designing and implementing trainings and pilot programs for including gender dimension in teaching and.

Findings: Even if there already exist some general guidelines for including gender dimension in teaching and in some countries the law requires the inclusion of gender dimension in high education, the effective inclusion of gender dimension in teaching is still in a very preliminary stage. Moreover, there are not specific studies focused on the Operations Management field.

Research limitations/implications: Even if the authors have wide experience in the field, the proposals have not been applied to many courses so there is no empirical evidence of the achieved results.

Practical implications: The paper can be useful for people teaching in Industrial Engineering and Operations Management courses’, as it gives not only some general guidelines and concepts but also specific examples that can be directly applied to their courses.

Social implications: Including gender dimension in Industrial Engineering and Operations Management courses, which are still male dominated, can help achieving the SDG 5, which is focused on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. Specifically, including gender dimension in teaching allow breaking stereotypes, changing the image of the knowledge field, empowering female students and giving both men and women tools for including the gender dimension in their professional careers.

Originality/value: There exist some general guidelines for including gender dimension in teaching but, to the best of our knowledge, there is no any specific work that is focused on the Operations Management knowledge field.