3rd International Interdisciplinary Conference on Gender, Work and Society

The 3rd International Interdisciplinary Conference on Gender, Work and Society organised by Centre for Business and Society (CBS) will be hosted at the Suleman Dawood School of Business (SDSB), LUMS on May 21-22, 2022. The conference, organised primarily as a series of streams, will provide an international forum for debate and analysis of contemporary debates affecting gender and diversity studies. Previous conferences, held in 2017 and 2019, attracted a large number of local and international scholars to network and collaborate gender-related research and practices. The present conference aims to build on the success and legacy of the previous conferences. 

Conference Scope 

Gender, work and society (GWS) provide an avenue of exchange and dialogue about how understanding gender is imperative to develop an understanding of organisation of work and society. At GWS, gender is broadly conceived as any gender identity and its various intersections within the fields of organisational and management studies. The issue of gender remains salient because while women constitute roughly half of our population, they still face unequal opportunities in access to social services, employment, judicial justice, political office and even public space. At the same time, millions of donor dollars are spent annually on gender equity enhancement programmes and public policy debates vigorously take up the cause of gender justice. Similarly, while several countries (including Pakistan) have recognised non-binary gender categories, research on the work, economic participation and organisational experiences of LGBTQ remains scarce.

While there are multiple normative reasons why organisations and businesses must care for equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), research shows that organisations that embrace equality, are also more successful creatively, as they recognise the creative skills and opportunities that diversity and inclusion offer, as well as being more economically viable and sustainable. It makes good business sense to offer flexible working environments, diversify audiences and better reflect the changing population of the world today. Our focus at this interdisciplinary conference is to explore the links between various gender and identity categories and economic participation, organisational culture, job satisfaction, organisational performance, entrepreneurship, leadership and management. We are also interested in understanding the impact of globalisation, public policy, social movements and social norms on the intersection between gender, work and society. The conference will present an interdisciplinary platform for participants to analyse and critique recent trends, innovations, and conditions related to gender, work and society, broadly defined. We invite full papers, developing papers and case studies on the conference theme.

This conference will take place in Pakistan which is a country of over 220 million people with diverse social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Pakistan and its neighbouring countries in South Asia also provide a unique economic, social and political context to explore the multiple intersections of gender, work and society. As the global political economy and businesses shift to the region, it is critical that scholars study the developments, debates, and discourses around gender, work, and society in the region. Given this context, this year the GWS conference will focus on the future of equalities, diversity and inclusiveness in organisations, businesses, and social activists in South Asia. We are particularly interested in understanding and documenting intersectionality as a travelling story (Saleem 2016) that is, how the intersection of class, race and gender plays out differently in different contexts. We also want to focus on the role of researchers and practitioners in responding to the contextual demands of managing diversity and inclusion.

The conference aims to encourage and highlight both scholarship and praxis around gender, diversity, work and society. The submissions should therefore be broadly within this field of research and analysis. Themes can include, but are not limited to the following:

•    Critical approaches to understanding how and why we ‘do’ gender and diversity in the workplace
•    Postcolonial critiques on EDI
•    Diversity, class and social movements
•    Links and gaps between diversity and inclusion
•    Education and employment – connecting the missing dots
•    Diversity and family business
•    Harassment and violence at the workplace
•    Gender identity and expression
•    EDI and sustainable development
•    Diversity and entrepreneurship in the Asian context
•    Gender, space, and organisation
•    Gender, organisations and public policy
•    Gender, money & management: Understanding the intersection of gender, accounting and finance
•    Aspiring leaders: perceptions of gender equality in managerial pipelines in South Asia
•    Gendered intersections: culture, ethnicity, class and religion in the workplace
•    EDI and leadership challenges
•    Religious and ethnic minorities inclusiveness: issues and challenges

The Best Paper Award will be presented during the conference.

Keynote Speaker
TBA

Scholarly Programme Co-chairs

Dr. Faiza Ali (Associate Professor, SDSB)
Dr. Ayesha Masood (Assistant Professor, SDSB)
Dr. Jawad Syed (Professor, SDSB)
Dr. Muhammad Azfar Nisar (Associate Professor, SDSB)

Guidelines

1)    The submitted paper/case (including title, abstract, main text, figures, tables, exhibits, references, etc.) should be saved in one file in MS Word format. 
2)    To facilitate the blind review process, please remove ALL authors’ identifying information including authors’ names, affiliation, email address and acknowledgements from the main file, including document/file properties. Author information and acknowledgements should be provided in a SEPARATE document.
3)    Font should be Times New Roman 12-pitch font, double spaced. 
4)    All pages should be numbered.

Please send your full papers (5000 to 8000 words) and developing papers (1000 to 3000 words) through the conference website (https://conference.lums.edu.pk/) by April 15, 2022. Presenters shall receive notification of the decision by May 6, 2022.

Registration Fee

International Participants: USD 100
International Participants from South Asia: USD 50
Local Participants: PKR 5,000
International Students: USD 50
International Students from South Asia: USD 25
Local Students: PKR 1,500

For inquiries, please contact:
Secretariat, 
Centre for Business and Society (CBS),
LUMS
DHA, Lahore Cantt. 54792, Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: +92 42 3560 8282
UAN: +92-42-111-115-867 Ext: 8282 
Email: cbs.conference@lums.edu.pk; amajid@lums.edu.pk
Website: https://icgws.lums.edu.pk