Throughout history, there has been an idea that women had to follow orders, which caused them to be kept in subordinate positions even after they entered the labor market; fortunately, during the last few decades, research focused on gender and female leadership has increased substantially. This has facilitated the visibility of women's potential in top positions in organizations around the world. It has been proven that the presence of women on boards of directors’ benefits organizations because it allows them to have a wider diversity of talent for business management. The present study aimed to analyze theoretical and empirical studies on the factors that facilitate women's access to board positions between 2017 and 2022. This systematic review was conducted based on the PRISMA statement strategy of articles in the Proquest, Ebsco, ScienceDirect and Scopus databases. Articles published between the indicated years were selected, in Spanish and English, using inclusion and exclusion criteria, and a subsequent critical analysis of the articles obtained. A total of 34 articles were included from which the corresponding results were extracted. The results show that there is a greater amount of research on the subject in European and North American countries, published almost entirely in English. And according to the analysis, the factors that facilitate women's access to board positions can be divided into political types, such as rules, regulations and quotas, cultural factors such as support for women, equal opportunities and gender equity, organizational factors such as organizational culture, policies, practices and training programs, and social factors such as media visibility, the presence of mentors and partner support. The research concludes that the most investigated factors were political, as these factors increase the number of women on boards in the short term; however, it’s also necessary to highlight the importance of a fusion with social, cultural, and organizational factors to achieve long-term improvement; as well as the commitment of all the agents that interact in the professional life of women. This paper will contribute to future scientific research on women's access to board positions.

Over the past few years, the presence of women as managers is important for corporate performance, several international organizations have raised their voices to seek the commitment of states around the world; women have begun to have greater recognition of their social and intellectual abilities to manage companies, but full gender equity within the corporate world is yet to be seen. Following goal number 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 established by the UN, it’s important to improve the situation in countries such as Peru, where the presence of women in managerial positions is still very low so it’s necessary to have more women breaking the glass ceiling and climbing to top management positions (Salas et al., 2020). This research study aimed to describe the factors that facilitate women's access to managerial positions. About the methodology, it was a descriptive type of research, with a quantitative, non-experimental, and cross-sectional approach; the population is all the women who held managerial positions in companies in Lima and Callao during 2021, and the sample was 30 women, with a non-probabilistic sampling for convenience; the technique used was the survey and the instrument was the questionnaire. The results obtained showed that among the factors with the greatest impact were myths and stereotypes, the most required factor to facilitate the access of women in managerial positions was the change in social paradigms, the required impact was the reduction of gender inequality and according to the perspective of women managers the participation of women in managerial positions was proportional to a greater economic return and it’s expected that women managers can make way for other women in various areas of the organization. It was concluded that the factors that are most involved in the access of women to management positions are those linked to the culture and thinking of the population, so it requires a long-term plan and the commitment of women, organizations, the environment, the culture, and government entities to facilitate the access of women in management positions in Lima and Callao.