Sex Composition,Masculinity Stereotype Dissimilarity and the Quality of Men's Workplace Social Relations

Previous research suggests that the quality of men's work group social relations varies depending on the sex composition of the work unit. Previous studies also suggest that men derive different benefits from working with other men than with women and that the higher status associated with men and masculinity advantages men in their relations with women workers. Previous sex composition studies tell us little, however, about the extent to which the quality of men's work group social relations with women and other men depends on how well a man fits dominant masculinity stereotypes. Drawing on sex composition and gender constructionist approaches to gender and work I investigate in this study the effects of men's individual similarity to masculinity stereotypes on the affective quality of their social relations with coworkers, given the sex composition of their work groups. The data for this study consist of male, mostly white, non‐faculty employees of a public university in the northwest United States. I discuss my results in terms of both individual outcomes and implications for understanding sex and gender inequalities in work organizations.     

Networking towards (in)equality: Women entrepreneurs in technology

Deploying a multidimensional framework focusing on individual, organizational and societal factors, we investigate gendering practices through which women entrepreneurs become disadvantaged in the technology sector. Through qualitative fieldwork, we focus on women entrepreneurs' experiences networking to access valuable entrepreneurial resources and examine the role of technology incubators and accelerators in facilitating this access. These organizations have the potential to mitigate gender inequities by adopting gender‐aware practices such as increasing access to networks and resources that might otherwise be unreachable for women technology entrepreneurs. Focusing simultaneously on the complex intersections of networking, organizational practices at incubators and accelerators, and institutionalized gender norms in society, we outline how different gendering practices work separately and in tandem to marginalize women technology entrepreneurs. We observe that these organizations engage in ‘gender neutral’ recruitment practices and promote transactional networking which result in the replication rather than eradication of gender inequality. Moreover, organizational attempts to address ‘gender issues’ as they relate to technology entrepreneurs re‐inscribe rather than disrupt societal gender norms. Our research offers new insights for understanding the interrelated individual, organizational and societal factors contributing to gender inequality in technology entrepreneurship and provokes discussion on the possibilities for social change.     

‘Strategic (dis)obedience’: Female entrepreneurs reflecting on and acting upon patriarchal practices

It has been suggested that entrepreneurship is a form of emancipation and social change for women. We adopt a more comprehensive view by considering micro‐emancipation at the level of both agency and identity of women entrepreneurs in patriarchal and Islamic societies. We borrow from organization studies literature to draw on the notions of the dynamic and ongoing process between dominators (i.e., men of the patriarchal family) and the dominated (i.e., women entrepreneurs). In this process micro‐emancipation and active obedience are intertwined. For this purpose, we contextualize the study in the United Arab Emirates, where men of the family regulate women's agency and identity. The men of the family are not only the gatekeepers of societal culture, but also the potential supporters for women to navigate the societal arrangements. By adopting an interpretive approach, we analyse the narratives of Emirati female entrepreneurs in their early stages of becoming an entrepreneur who engage in strategic (dis)obedience. The article contributes to the literature on micro‐emancipation in the context of gender and entrepreneurship.     

To work or to care? Working women's decision-making

Recent changes in older people's public care services in Nordic countries in particular in Finland and Sweden are based on implicit expectations that family members will increase their involvement in care. In Nordic countries, the care of small children has been acknowledged to be a social matter that concerns gender equality and the work life participation of both men and women, while the situation of working carers of older people is much less acknowledged. This study addressed the question of how Finnish working women who give care to their older parents argue for and against their decisions of working and caring and the meaning of work and care in these decisions. Majority of the interviewees emphasised the importance of work and refuted the idea of leaving work for care. The decision not to leave work for care was justified with worker identity, commitment to work, having no innate skills to be a carer, availability of support services and other carers and financial necessity. On the other hand, a few interviewees brought forward their willingness to leave work which was justified by constructing care as meaningful and valuable activity as opposed to meaningless paid employment, and with the intensification of work, and with ageing. Lengthy argumentation and several discursive tools indicate that women anticipated moral blame for the decision of giving work primacy over care, but also for leaving work. Thus, working carers balance between contrasting expectations to care and to work.     

Promoting women entrepreneurs in Lebanon: the experience of UNIFEM

The work of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in West Asia began in 1994 with a regional program to strengthen women-owned enterprises in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. In Lebanon, a survey of 100 women entrepreneurs, as well as nontraditional credit programs and banks, was conducted prior to program design. A second survey assessed micro-entrepreneurs' demands for financial and other services. Since gender analysis was a new concept in Lebanon, UNIFEM organized a gender awareness workshop for representatives of government, nongovernmental organizations, and the banking sector, followed by a strategic planning workshop. The surveys confirmed that women were concentrated mainly in the less profitable economic sectors, producing handicrafts and food products or running small service or trading companies. Women were less likely than men to get bank loans or to register their businesses. Women's problems accessing credit--the main obstacle limiting their ability to develop their businesses--were compounded by their lack of information, male-oriented collateral requirements, and discriminatory banking regulations. UNIFEM decided to channel counseling of women entrepreneurs on legal matters, marketing, and credit sources through the Ministry of Social Affairs. It is expected that knowledge of gender-related employment issues and the use of gender-specific analysis will become integral to the Ministry's program as a result.     

Gender (In)equality in Internet Pornography: A Content Analysis of Popular Pornographic Internet Videos

Although Internet pornography is widely consumed and researchers have started to investigate its effects, we still know little about its content. This has resulted in contrasting claims about whether Internet pornography depicts gender (in)equality and whether this depiction differs between amateur and professional pornography. We conducted a content analysis of three main dimensions of gender (in)equality (i.e., objectification, power, and violence) in 400 popular pornographic Internet videos from the most visited pornographic Web sites. Objectification was depicted more often for women through instrumentality, but men were more frequently objectified through dehumanization. Regarding power, men and women did not differ in social or professional status, but men were more often shown as dominant and women as submissive during sexual activities. Except for spanking and gagging, violence occurred rather infrequently. Nonconsensual sex was also relatively rare. Overall, amateur pornography contained more gender inequality at the expense of women than professional pornography did.     

Factors Influencing Women Entrepreneurs of NGOs in India

This article examines women entrepreneurs in the nonprofit sector. Entrepreneurial activity attracts certain kinds of individuals.Such self‐selection is not a random event but is influenced by personal characteristics as well as socioeconomic and cultural factors. This article examines women entrepreneurs in a particular segment of the nonprofit sector in India to determine which factors influence such self‐selection. Our research confirms findings by other scholars that nonprofit entrepreneurs receive a high payoff from promoting social causes. Furthermore, we find that previous experience in the sector, beliefs, culture, social class, education, and family background also play an important role. We explore some policy implications of our findings.     

Family as a eudaimonic bubble: Women entrepreneurs mobilizing resources of care during persistent financial crisis and austerity

Drawing on the conceptualization of family as a eudaimonic bubble, the study explores how women entrepreneurs mobilize familial resources to navigate the gendered challenges faced during persistent financial crisis and austerity in Greece, a country affected by acute socioeconomic crisis. Through qualitative interviews with women who started their own business during the financial crisis, it investigates how the allocation of resources and opportunities built on care enabled women to start and sustain their own business and achieve a degree of normative conformity, creating social cohesion in the here and now. The analysis reveals the transformational potential of familial care by illustrating three modes of resources of care that contribute to business viability, and positions the family, an organizing principle, in the centre of research on gendered mobilizations in crisis economies. In that way, the study critically contributes to debates regarding gender, entrepreneurship and austerity.     

Effects of Diverse Forms of Family Structure on Female and Male Homicide

Utilizing 2000 data on 1,618 counties and seemingly unrelated regression, I assess whether family structure effects on homicide vary across family structure measures and gender. There is evidence of robust, multidimensional family structure effects across constructs reflecting the presence of two‐parent families: mother/father absence, shortages of employed men, and nonmarital/teen childbearing. Findings indicate mainly gender similarity in family structural sources of homicide, but subtle gender differences include stronger effects on male homicide patterns and female‐specific mediating effects of the care burden on homicide. Further exploration of diverse family constructs is warranted, but, methodologically, father absence is adequate as a control for family structure. Public policies and social programs aimed at strengthening families could lessen violence among both women and men.     

Gender and professional identity: A qualitative study of social workers practising as counsellors and psychotherapists

This article presents an analysis of the interactions between gender and class in the career pathways of social workers practising as counsellors and psychotherapists. Gender is one of the strong patterns found in the empirical data generated by a qualitative study of the professional identity of practitioners in social work. Gender was found to have a strong influence on the career choices made by men and women in social work. Women in the sample have pursued career directions that continue to have a strong clinical focus, combined with other roles such as management, supervision and training. They are more likely to express the need to balance their working lives with the needs of their families. Men are more likely to single-mindedly pursue careers in management and to express feelings of responsibility to provide for their families once children are born. However, the analysis of data also found that men were more likely to identify their family origins as working class, while women identify their family backgrounds as middle class. This patterning shows the complex interactions between gender and class in determining life outcomes. These differential pathways and work preferences need to be recognised and addressed to work towards more equitable outcomes for practitioners within social work, so that structural disadvantages on the basis of gender and class are challenged rather than replicated.     

Gender and Networks in a Local Voluntary-Sector Elite

Focusing on gender inequality in a local community elite, we investigate the role of gender in access to and participation in networks of nonprofit trustees in Louisville, Kentucky. We examine two types of network relations: participation in the network of overlapping board memberships (the structural network) and interpersonal ties of collegiality and friendship (the social network). Asking whether the gender hierarchy found in most private and public sector organizations is mirrored in this inner circle of trustees, with men occupying the most influential positions in the structural and social networks, we find some male advantage in the structural network. Men predominate in holding most board seats, occupying multiple board seats, and in having slightly greater network centrality. By contrast, women hold the edge in the social network, with slightly greater centrality and higher levels of social integration. Women's disadvantage in the structural network is at least partly counterbalanced by their prominence in the social network of trustees in Louisville. Results indicate that the local nonprofit sector includes a small number of women (but no people of color) in leadership roles.     

Role Conflict and Self‐Efficacy Among Employed Parents: Examining Complex Statistical Interactions

In response to growing concerns with explaining how work and family interfere with each other and with statistical approaches that do not capture the way in which predictors interact, this study tested statistical interactions involving personal and social resources of 410 full‐time employed women and men. The results indicate that self‐efficacy is a strong predictor of family interfering with work (FIW) and work interfering with family (WIF). Gender moderates the relation between supervisor support and WIF moderates the impact of efficacy beliefs and instrumental support at home on FIW. Specifically, while supervisor support is negatively related to WIF in women and men, high levels of support more strongly affected men's perceptions of WIF. In low self‐efficacy men, high levels of support at home improved their perceptions of FIW but these perceptions worsened in women. These findings contrast with earlier research that focus predominantly on the predictive value of structural demands (for example, the number of hours worked per week and family size). This study shows that gender plays a critical yet intricate role as a predictor of the successful management of work and family roles: it is not gender per se but its interaction with personal and social variables that informs us about differences in the experience of employed parents.     

“If I Can Offer You Some Advice”: Rapport and Data Collection in Interviews Between Adults of Different Ages

Reflexively analyzing interactions between myself (young adult woman) and 150 adult research participants, I explore how interviewees responded to the interviewer's perceived age in combination with other social identity categories. Addressing a gap in scholarship on adult‐adult interview interactions, this article examines how age gradations, in combination with other axes of similarity or difference, affect researcher‐interviewee rapport and data acquisition. Racial similarity, regardless of age, unlocked access to the topic of race/ethnicity. Age intersected with gender such that women within a decade of the woman interviewer's age assumed similarity and were communicative. In interviews with similarly‐aged heterosexual men, awareness of sexuality inhibited answers around intimacy. With older interviewees, gender similarity bridged the age chasm with women. In contrast, age and gender difference inspired older men to act paternalistically and give unsolicited advice. Even among adults, interviewees' classification of the interviewer's age contours the interactional dynamic, impacts data acquisition, and reproduces social distinctions.     

The ‘Feminization’ of Management? Issues of ‘Sameness’ and ‘Difference’ in the Roles and Experiences of Female and Male Retail Managers

Explanations of women’s poor representation in senior management usually emphasize differences between women and men managers’ experiences, circumstances and aspirations, and the gendered character of organizational structures and processes. Whilst these may all disadvantage women, some writers have suggested recently that women managers may differ in style and orientation in ways particularly appropriate for today’s developing organizations. This paper explores issues of ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’ between women and men managers in retailing. Whilst both male and female store managers wanted to downplay gender differences and adopt a ‘gender neutral’ approach, they also associated a number of advantages and disadvantages with being a woman manager in certain contexts. Rapid sectoral change had caused companies to reassess the desired attributes and competences of managers; associated both with an enhanced valuing of ‘feminine’ qualities and with a more ‘objective’ and ‘clinical’ approach to assessment. Despite their equal numbers at entry points women remained poorly represented at senior levels, suggesting that subjective and informal processes were important determinants of women and men’s progress. Given management is inherently a process enacted by individual managers within a social context the extent to which it can be conceived in gender neutral terms is questioned since individuals are inevitably discussed and identified in terms of their gender.     

To profit or not to profit: Women entrepreneurs in India

Entrepreneurial activity attracts certain kinds of individuals, whether it is to promote a social cause in the nonprofit sector or profit in the for‐profit sector. This article looks at the behavior of women entrepreneurs in India in both the for‐profit and nonprofit sectors to test for potential differences and similarities. We chose two groups of entrepreneurial women who founded and led relatively similar‐size organizations in the same city and who provided services primarily to women and children. Our findings show that while all nonprofit entrepreneurs receive a high payoff from promoting social causes, there is no single unifying payoff for for‐profit entrepreneurs. Family background and support, however, play an important role for both sets of entrepreneurs. We find that experience in the sector, social class, caste, and education in?uence entrepreneurial behavior and that this in?uence differs by sector.     

Tracing Differentiation in Gendered Leadership: An Analysis of Differences in Gender Composition in Top Management in Business,Politics and the Civil Service

The aim of this article is to discuss the relationship between the gendering of leadership positions and sector‐specific structures within politics, business and the civil service in Denmark in the context of differences between the Nordic countries and other western countries. The analysis is based on data from a survey of top male and female leaders within the three sectors. The theoretical point of departure of this article is constructivist. It looks at gender as constituted by actions in social space, orchestrated by structural processes and a symbolic order of gender. This constitutes a cultural discourse on gender reflected in gender conventions in society and in a range of possibilities of gender positioning. Expressions of this are discussed in the analysis of the patterns of difference in structural conditions for women and men in leadership positions to be found within the three sectors. The structural conditions encompass access conditions and conditions for gendered positioning and are analysed on the basis of data on social background, education, career course, family, children and distribution of housework. The analysis shows that there is a correlation between gender composition of leadership and possibilities of gendered positioning within a sector. The results are finally discussed as possible expressions of an egalitarian culture.     

Working conditions, social support, and the well-being of female and male factory workers

Previous research on the effects of working conditions on well-being typically has focused on men; the few studies including women have compared men and women in different work settings. We analyze the effects of four kinds of working conditions--job demands, job deprivations and rewards, physical environment, and work-related social support--on the well-being of female and male factory workers in similar jobs. We also test for buffering (interaction) effects of social support (from co-workers, supervisors, and company programs) on relations between working conditions and well-being. All types of working conditions affect well-being, but there are almost no gender differences in the effects of working conditions on well-being. Although work-related social support promotes well-being among both women and men, it does not (at least as measured here) buffer effects of other stressful working conditions. In general, the results indicate considerable gender similarity in the processes through which the job affects well-being.     

Contingent Work Rising: Implications for the Timing of Marriage in Japan

Employment has become increasingly precarious in developed countries, meaning that, for many young adults, jobs provide neither benefits nor security, more work is part time, and employers are increasingly hiring workers from temporary help agencies and contract companies rather than as employees of their own company. These changes in employment relations have profound effects on gender roles and on family transitions of young adults, especially young men and in particular in countries such as Japan, where there are rigid family norms and the male‐breadwinner tradition still prevails. The authors examined the effects of the experience of non‐regular work on the timing of marriage and whether this differs by sex. Using recent life history data from Japan, they found that men working in non‐regular jobs are especially likely to postpone marriage. The implications of the growth of precarious work for changes in work and family institutions in Japan are discussed.     

Spousal Interdependence in Turnover Decisions: The Case of Israel's Medical Sector Employees

Gender-related labor behavior traditionally has been sensitive to and symptomatic of changes in the labor force and the social structure. Two developments in family life call into question the traditional gender model of work behavior, which posits the family versus job dichotomy: (a) the greater share of economic responsibilities assumed by female spouses, and (b) the greater male involvement in family life within married couple families. A multivariate model that encompasses demographics, work conditions, and family constraints was regressed on the actual turnover behavior of male and female spouses. The analysis reveals that male and female respondents differ in the importance they assign to employment conditions and work attitudes, but they do not differ in the importance they assign to the other spouse's employment and family responsibilities when a turnover decision is considered. These findings support the notion of spousal interdependence in turnover decisions. This interdependence nevertheless is asymmetrical, since the turnover antecedents are caused by the impact of different predictors for men and women.     

Trust and Sexual Interaction: The Significance of the Internet on the Sex life and Sexual Risk Behaviors Of Gay and Bisexual Men in Spain

ABSTRACT

This study provides an understanding of the significance of the use of the Internet to find sexual partners, its impact on sexual life, and how it is linked to unprotected sex among gay and bisexual men. A grounded approach was used to analyze interviews with 31 men (aged 19 to 46 years) from Madrid, Barcelona, and Bilbao/San Sebastián, Spain. The results reveal that the Internet is impacting the form and style of life of many men, and particularly their experience of sexuality. Many men regard their sexual experiences with casual partners met through the Internet as unsatisfactory or frustrating. The men provided several reasons behind the search for sexual partners via the Internet: Some interviewees sought to channel needs other than the sexual (company, affection, stable partner). Trust and assumptions built into the virtual interaction become a key to understanding why some men have unprotected sex with partners met on the Internet.