Mapping the relevance and influence of gender in social economy enterprises: A review based on bibliographic analysis

The reality of the social economy has traditionally given rise to various debates and has been examined from different perspectives by academia. In this article, we conducted an in-depth study through a bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature that addresses the reality of the social economy (in its different expressions) from a gender perspective. This enabled the establishment of the conceptual, intellectual and social structure of the scientific research literature related to these two realities. Among 703 initial articles derived from Web of Science and Scopus queries, 250 were studied and processed using the Bibliometrix tool after harmonization. The findings reveal the world's leading positions of Spain and the United Kingdom in terms of related scientific production, which is reflected as well in the case of scientific collaboration networks. Also relevant is the finding of women's empowerment in the social economy as an emerging topic related to Sustainable Development Goal 5, ‘Gender equality’. These results will help researchers understand and acknowledge the social economy as a reality inherently connected to the gender perspective, promoting a more cohesive academic community that will lay the groundwork for future research.