Critical Issues and Future Challenges on Gender Equality: The Role of Gender-Responsive Budgeting for Public Value

This chapter aims to explore the potential impact of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) on advancing gender equality (GE) as a public value (PV). It addresses the need for deeper understanding of the relationship between PV, social sustainability, and accounting, responding to calls for rethinking accounting beyond traditional financial focuses to include wider social values. The study reviews existing management accounting literature in the public sector, centred on GE, the role of GRB, PV, and the intersection between them. The review identifies a significant gap in research connecting GE and PV, particularly in accounting. GRB emerges as a crucial tool for promoting GE through structured processes in public organisations, yet its implementation is threatened by several factors. Among those, political actors, leaders’ awareness, and skills of staff play crucial roles in the successful adoption of GRB. The healthcare sector and the engagement of civil society are highlighted as an area where gender issues and GRB application warrant further investigation in the light of PV. This chapter contributes to the discourse on the transformative potential of accounting in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs), emphasising the creation of GE as PV through GRB. It underscores the importance of institutionalising GRB in public budgeting processes and addresses challenges and opportunities in its implementation, thereby filling a notable gap in the literature and setting the stage for future research on the intersection of GRB, GE, and PV in accounting.