Virtual Meetings during the Pandemic: Boon or Bane for Gender Inequality

Authors

Willem Standaert, HEC Liège - Management School of the University of LiègeFollow
Sophie Thunus, UC LouvainFollow

Paper Number

1018

Abstract

Prior research has revealed gender inequalities in (pre-pandemic) face-to-face meetings in terms of the inclusivity of meeting participant composition and the difficulty of participants to speak up during meetings. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the majority of meetings have been held virtually. The virtual nature of meetings offers flexibility in terms of including participants and it neutralizes some physical cues related to power dynamics. However, gender inequalities have also been identified related to the lockdown and work-from-home measures. Therefore, we set out to explore how the sudden switch to virtual meetings impacted gender inequalities in workplace meetings, in terms of the number of meetings participated in and difficulty to speak up, while controlling for hierarchical rank. Based on survey responses of 542 academic researchers, our exploratory findings indicate that virtual meetings mirror organizational gender inequalities and that these inequalities have exacerbated since the pandemic.

Recommended Citation

Standaert, Willem and Thunus, Sophie, "Virtual Meetings during the Pandemic: Boon or Bane for Gender Inequality" (2022). ECIS 2022 Research-in-Progress Papers. 3.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2022_rip/3