1. Biological sex: the sex assigned to an individual at birth on the basis of the external anatomy of the genitals;

2. Gender identity: the profound feeling of belonging to a gender, which can be male, female or other;

3. Gender expression: nouns, pronouns, behaviour, clothing, voice, mannerisms and/or body characteristics with which an individual expresses gender;

4. Gender roles: a society's expectations of what men and women should be like;

5. Sexual orientation: the sex-affective attraction to one or more genders. Sexual orientations are heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual and asexual.

• Stereotypes and prejudices are part of culture and common sense 
• They are acquired through socialisation 
• Some are transmitted from generation to generation 
• They are 'social constructions' and do not reflect 'reality' 
• They depend on specific socio-historical conditions

Stereotyping pertains to the cognitive core.

It is in fact a mental shortcut used to make it easier and faster to classify people or things into certain categories.

Prejudice relates to the attitude resulting from the rigidity of the stereotype.

Prejudice can also concretely direct action.

Descriptive because they indicate how women and men are.

Prescriptive because they establish how women and men should be in order to be considered adequate women and men.

Adjectives attributed to men

Assertive Disorderly Independent Aggressive Dominant Logical Ambitious Elegant Masculine Autocratic Difficult Cruel Adventurous Energetic Rational Noisy Playful Realistic Risky Intrapreneurial Rigorous Confident Coarse Robust Steady Strong Passionate Brave

Adjectives attributed to women

Loving Fresh Whiner Attentive Humble Interested Attractive Emotional Prudent Capricious Excitable Dreamer Charming Lowly Sentimental Enchanter Delicate Women Pleased Frivolous Sophisticated  Nervous Loquacious Dependent Perseverant Capricious

Agentic attributes are precisely those considered necessary to be a good leader. This partly explains why women, who on the contrary are associated with communal characteristics, are affected by the crystal ceiling phenomenon, being excluded more often than men from top positions.

Furthermore, the issue of work-life balance still remains a topic of great debate.

Despite the increase in female employment and the consequent greater engagement of women in non-domestic activities, the pattern of distribution of responsibilities in the family sphere is still frequently traditional.

While for men 'the family is a resource to draw on throughout the journey leading to the consolidation of their career choices, for women family responsibility often translates into a constraint to be reckoned with when planning one's career future. In other words, while men have a family to rely on, women have a family to think about' (Dovigo 2007, 20-21).

Gender and sexual minorities are also subject to stereotypes and prejudices, often unconsciously in recruitment or personnel management teams. This makes it very difficult for companies to focus on diversity, which according to numerous studies and direct experiences is good for the company's business.

When women and members of the LGBTQ+ community are in management roles, they proactively seek to attract a more diverse range of job applicants, adding diversity in the workplace and reducing the chances of losing a good candidate to bias.

When in a leadership position, women also tend to implement inclusive policies and openly support the LGBTQ+ community, creating a more inclusive organisational culture.

The presence of microaggressions in the workplace against women and LGBTQI+ people is very frequent and generates a sexist and homophobic climate that severely affects the organisational well-being and health of the female and male workers who are victims, worsening the performance of the work groups that are burdened by this organisational climate.