A Systematic Literature Review of Female Leadership in Business (2014–2023)

Chen Chen, Ivan Ka Wai Lai and Tingyue Kuang

SAGE Open, 2025, vol. 15, issue 2, 21582440251340140

Abstract: With the progress of society and the improvement of women’s status, more and more women are beginning to enter leadership positions, showing both their leadership ability and potential. The increase in the number of women in leadership positions has sparked researchers’ attention and interest in female leadership research. The purpose of this article is to review the development of female leadership research, classify research themes, and identify research gaps for future research. Based on the Web of Science database, this paper comprehensively and systematically combs through and analyzes the research results in the field of female leadership over the past 10 years, searching and reviewing 277 relevant journal papers. VOSviewer is used to perform bibliometric analysis. Four research themes were classified: female leadership performance, female leadership stereotypes, female entrepreneurship, and female leadership styles. Based on content analysis, 11 research areas under these four themes are discussed, and seven potential areas are proposed for future research.

Keywords: female leadership; bibliometric analysis; systematic literature review; research agenda; VOSviewer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:15:y:2025:i:2:p:21582440251340140

DOI: 10.1177/21582440251340140

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