Abstract Gender inequality carries high social costs, and understanding its causes and consequences remains a pressing concern. Numerous policymakers and academics have taken on this challenge, including anthropological archaeologists. Because archaeologists create narratives about the past that can justify or question current and future actions, contemporary archaeological practice impacts everyone. This themed issue builds on recent documentations of disparities and calls to address them. To do so, contributors use a mix of quantitative and qualitative analyses, as well as novel theoretical perspectives, to understand why intersectional gender-based inequalities continue and to propose interventions to rectify them. We begin by considering the history of feminist equity critiques. We then argue that scholars should build on existing research by reconceptualizing not only difference but also exclusion. Policymakers, academics, and others must move beyond the problematic yet ubiquitous metaphor of a leaky pipeline and instead consider the active—though often unconscious and unintentional—ways individuals and institutions exclude, including through notions of fit, prestige, and the hysteresis of habitus, also known as the Don Quixote effect. The overarching goal of the themed issue, and this article, is to advocate for interventions in contemporary archaeological practice and beyond.
Kurnick et al. (2026) studied this question.