Natalie Sappleton

The Gender Subtext of Science, Engineering, and Technology (SET) Organizations: A Review and Critique

Despite over 30 years of equality legislation, women in science, engineering and technology in the U.K. remain severely under-represented. This article explores the broad array of explanations for this concern, beyond palpable sex discrimination. This literature review employs a complex range of complementary and conflicting approaches over multiple disciplines, reflecting the complexity of gender identity, stereotyping and inter-sex relations. We then discuss how certain structural, cultural, identity, and interactional arrangements combine to hinder the effective operation of the equality agendas in the workplace, and suggest how a “diversity” approach to equal opportunities is the way forward to eliminate organizational sex segregation.

Advancing Research Methods with New Technologies

In this chapter the authors consider using email as a method for carrying out in-depth, qualitative research interviews. Prompted by an experience of conducting e-interviews, they set out some of their key characteristics, embedding their discussion in the methodological and conceptual literature on qualitative interview and on-line research. The authors then ofer a methodological consideration of e-interviewing, focusing on three broad areas: the practical, the interpersonal, and the ethical, highlighting the ways in which e-interviewing transforms aspects of each. They end by ofering a view of the future of e-interviewing in the broader landscape of on-line qualitative research methods in general and interviewing in particular.

Experience of entrepreneurial training for female farmers to stimulate entrepreneurship in Uganda

– The purpose of this study is to evaluate the success of a scheme, supported by the Ugandan Agribusiness Initiative Trust, to fund gender and entrepreneurship training for women farmers in the north of Uganda (Gulu District and Lira District). Moreover, this paper reflects upon our experience of delivering training for women farmers and highlights key observations related to women’s entrepreneurship in Uganda. , – A practitioner-based reflection which shares the experiences of the process of developing and delivering gender and entrepreneurship training for women in Uganda. , – Through the experience of running gender and entrepreneurship training for women farmers in Uganda, a series of barriers to female rural entrepreneurs are highlighted: lack of access to credit, gender inequality, poor infrastructure, lack of access to knowledge and education, negative attitudes towards women and few initiatives to facilitate economic and business success. , – This paper provides reflection of the experience gained from the delivery of training and interaction with women farmers and entrepreneurs in Uganda.

Entrepreneurship, self-employment and retirement

Chapter 1. Retirement Planning, Financial Literacy and Small Business Owners Chapter 2. One Size Does Not Fit All: Uncovering Older Entrepreneur Diversity Through Motivations, Emotions And Mentoring Needs Chapter 3. Entrepreneurship in a Context of Pending Retirement: The Lived Experience of Older Entrepreneurs Chapter 4. Becoming an Entrepreneur after Retirement: Results from a Longitudinal Study in the Netherlands Chapter 5. What Drives Post-Retirement Age Knowledge-Based Self-Employment? An Investigation of Social, Policy and Individual Factors Chapter 6. Entrepreneurship in Mid-Career Chapter 7. Self-Employment Among Canadian Seniors: Trends And Financial Well-Being Chapter 8. Hybrid Entrepreneurship during Retirement: Comparison of Motives and Aspirations Chapter 9. Self-employment around Retirement Age

Email subject lines and response rates to invitations to participate in a web survey and a face-to-face interview: the sound of silence

This paper investigates the relationship between blank and non-blank email subject lines on levels of response to a solicitation to participate in an interview, and on participation in a web survey. Email use has grown substantially in recent years, presenting significant opportunity to the empiricist seeking research respondents. However, response to emails may be low because growth in the sheer volume of messages that individuals receive per day has led to a sense of ‘email overload’, and faced with the challenge of personal email management, many recipients choose to ignore some messages, or do not read them all fully. Drawing on information gap theory, we expected that sending an invitation with a blank subject line would induce a sense of curiosity in recipients that would improve email response and willingness to participate in research studies. However, findings from research with two samples with different propensities to participate in research (academics and business owners) revealed that an email invitation with a blank subject line does not increase overall response rates to a web survey and a face-to-face interview over either an informative subject line or a provocative subject line, but that it does prompt a greater number of active refusals. Based on this finding, recommendations for researchers are outlined.

Work satisfaction of the self-employed The roles of work autonomy, working hours, gender and sector of self-employment

Studies on segregation in employment are suggestive of higher levels of job satisfaction in female-dominated occupational settings. This research investigates whether this effect is replicated in self-employment. We explore whether satisfaction differentials are related to differences in autonomy and working hours. Our hypotheses are tested using data from the European Social Survey. The final sample consists of 1079 males and 326 females. Our research suggests that differences in job satisfaction among self-employed men and women should not be attributed to gender but to gender composition of sector. Our study contributes to our understanding of gender within a sectoral perspective and the significance of work autonomy and level of working hours to improve work satisfaction of the self-employed.

Gender and Business Ethics of Enterprise Students and Nascent Entrepreneurs Engaged in Entrepreneurship Education

It has generally been argued that women have higher moral standards or display greater concern about the effects of their actions on others when responding to ethical dilemmas. However, the findings of empiricists have hardly been conclusive. We contend that it is important to investigate the ethical attitudes towards business practice of those who are at the early phase of the entrepreneurship path such as enterprise students (n = 128) and nascent entrepreneurs (n = 204). The findings revealed sex differences in the ethical attitudes of enterprise students, but not of nascent entrepreneurs. In addition, the business ethics of male nascent entrepreneurs were significantly higher than those of male enterprise students. We argue that sex-role socialisation reduces differences among individuals performing similar activities, and use moral development theory to explain that ethical values evolve over time.

Book review: Karen D Hughes and Jennifer E Jennings (eds), Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Research: Diverse Settings, Questions and Approaches

applicable across the whole workforce of Defra, the UK Civil Service and to the middle class of western economies is questionable. The book may have benefited from further justification of the selection of late-capitalist writing to clarify the relevance and applicability of these examples. Overall, this book may be of interest to academics and students with an interest in business and management literature and history. Given the disparate bodies of contemporary literature explored, the book might appeal to readers in its component parts and as a whole.

Does Ethicality Wane With Adulthood? A Study of the Ethical Values of Entrepreneurship Students and Nascent Entrepreneurs

The authors examined the following questions: Does gender influence the ethicality of enterprise students to a greater extent than it does nascent entrepreneurs? If this is the case, then is it due to factors associated with adulthood such as age, work experience, marital status, and parental status? Sex-role socialization theory and moral development theory are used to support the development of hypotheses. A total of 128 undergraduate business enterprise students and 204 nascent entrepreneurs participated in this study. Ordinary least squares regression was used to produce estimates to support hypothesis testing. The findings suggest implications for entrepreneurship education and future research in this area.

Introduction: Pre- and Post-Retirement Self-Employment: Broadening Existing Horizons

The prolongation of life expectancy, concomitant with the shrinking of the younger population, has brought about a shift in old-age dependency ratios and placed an unprecedented level of pressure on already fragile pension systems in many developed economies (Watkins-Mathys 2012; OECD 2013). In the context of a rapidly ageing workforce, impending skills shortages, a tightening labour market, upwards shifts in the minimum age at which individuals become eligible for pensions and the gradual degradation of both private and public pension schemes and in an effort to avert the impeding “pensions crisis”, governments have adopted strategies such as encouraging delayed retirement (Orenstein 2011; Watkins-Mathys 2012). For instance, in the United Kingdom, the Default Retirement Age (DRA) was fully abolished in 2011 (Flynn et al. 2014), while the Japanese government has raised the mandatory retirement age twice since the 1990s (Wood, Robertson and Wintersgill 2010). Such developments have in turn brought about considerable debate in academic and policy circles on ways to prolong the working life of productive older workers (Taylor et al. 2012; Baruch, Sayce and Gregoriou 2014).