Purpose This paper aims to provide a critical perspective of how the theme of women, and more broadly gender, have been treated in extant international business (IB) literature. It also suggests meaningful and promising avenues in this research space.

Design/methodology/approach This paper is not intended to provide a comprehensive literature review; rather, it offers a critical and reflective view on the development of the IB stream of literature in which discussion of women has been largely marginalised.

Findings While women and gender have been topics of considerable discussion across a range of disciplines in the social sciences, they have received limited examination in the IB literature despite this discipline being most suitable for such, given its socio-cultural analyses across international borders and organisations.

Research limitations/implications Several themes are suggested as fertile future research avenues. These themes identify gaps in existing knowledge but, more importantly, also problematize prevailing views that IB scholars tend to hold about women and gender. The future research themes suggest that the very context of IB signifies the need for systematic gender analysis which might advance current understanding of women specifically and gender, more broadly, in the IB field.

Originality/value This paper makes a salient and timely contribution to the IB field in providing an original, erstwhile unexamined critique of the marginal reflection on women and gender within extant IB research.