Resumo

Gender inequality persists globally, reflected in wage gaps, limited leadership roles, and pervasive violence, particularly acute in Brazil. Cultural norms and organizational structures reinforce disparities, while women’s underrepresentation in politics and management constrains progress despite quota reforms. Although SDG 5 emphasizes gender equality and violence elimination, systemic barriers endure. Critical Mass Theory highlights that only when women’s representation surpasses tokenism can institutions achieve substantive cultural and structural change (Lefley & Jane?ek, 2024).

This study aimed to analyze the organizational conditions that contribute to equal opportunities for women compared to men in the workplace among Brazilian female professionals. To this end, a crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA) was applied to examine how organizational conditions (harassment experiences, reporting channels, women’s leadership encouragement, gender equality projects, CSR practices, CSR reporting, and organizational size) interact to shape pathways ensuring equal opportunities for women in Brazilian workplaces.

Grounded in Social Role Theory (Schneider & Bos, 2019) and Equity Theory (Kossek & Buzzanell, 2018), gender equality in organizations depends on disrupting normative expectations and ensuring fairness in opportunities, recognition, and resources. Leadership encouragement, equality projects, CSR policies, and reporting mechanisms foster inclusion, though silence may perpetuate prejudice. Critical Mass Theory highlights that only when women reach sufficient representation can structural barriers be dismantled, enabling fairness and equitable participation to materialize.

Methodologically, this study is descriptive, applied, and survey-based, with data collected via an anonymous Google Forms questionnaire targeting Brazilian female professionals across company sizes. Responses, gathered between May 27 and June 13, 2025, totaled 98 valid cases. Using csQCA, the research calibrated binary sets to identify necessary and sufficient organizational conditions for equal opportunities. Non-probabilistic convenience sampling was adopted, excluding missing values from the analysis.

From csQCA, 6 paths were found. Equal opportunities for women compared to men in the workplace arise from multiple sufficient configurations rather than a single determinant. The absence of harassment, the presence of reporting mechanisms, and encouragement of women in leadership emerged as the most consistent factors across solutions, while CSR initiatives and gender equality projects appeared as complementary but less decisive conditions. Organizational size showed an ambiguous influence, suggesting it is not a determining factor on its own.

This study contributes theoretically by integrating Social Role, Equity, and Critical Mass theories within a configurational approach, showing how fairness, norm disruption, and critical representation interact to shape women’s opportunities. Practically, it offers organizations pathways to promote equality through harassment prevention, reporting channels, and leadership encouragement. Findings, grounded in the Brazilian context of violence and inequality, are highly relevant locally but should be generalized cautiously abroad.

Kossek, E. E., & Buzzanell, P. M. (2018). Women’s career equality and leadership in organizations: Creating an evidence?based positive change. Human Resource Management, 57(4), 813–822. Lefley, F., & Jane?ek, V. (2024). Board gender diversity, quotas and critical mass theory. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 29(2), 139–151. Schneider, M. C., & Bos, A. L. (2019). The Application of Social Role Theory to the Study of Gender in Politics. Political Psychology, 40(S1), 173–213.