Sharon R. Bird

Understanding the Gender Gap in Small Business Success Urban and Rural Comparisons

The authors explore how urban versus rural community location shapes the extent to which various individual, relational, and structural factors affect the gender gap in small business success. Building on previous research on gender and small business success, gender queuing theories, and gendered organization/institution theories, they develop a place-specific theory of the gender gap in small business success. The findings, based on small business data collected in urban and rural Iowa (1995 and 1997), support queuing arguments and raise questions about the effectiveness of crowded-sector explanations. They indicate that the gender gap in small business success operates such that men-owned businesses are more successful in both urban and rural settings but that men-owned businesses are even more successful than women-owned businesses in urban than rural communities. The authors discuss the causes and consequences of the gender gap in small business success in rural and urban places and identify key issues for further research.

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.

De-Gendering Practice/Practicing De-Gendering: Response to Yancey Martin

Yancey Martin’s insightful analysis, “Gendering Practices, Practicing Gender at Work,” explores dynamics largely overlooked by masculinity/gender constructionist frameworks. Rather than focus on the practices that position men relative to hegemonic masculinity (e.g., Connell 1995), Yancey Martin explores how workplace masculinity practices exclude and thwart women’s potential. Gender practices are institutionalized “systems of action” that vary in form by local context and time period. Because men’s self-serving interests in masculinity practices for men are conflated with common work routines, they create cumulative instances of non– decision making that normalize men’s power over women and squelch interests specific to women. Yancey Martin’s work is exciting and inspiring not only for what it reveals about gender and power but also for the questions it raises.

Problematizing the Gendered Substructures of Capitalist Economy

A new study published by William Marsiglio and Kevin Roy, Nurturing Dads: Social Initiatives for Contemporary Fatherhood, examines current fathering practices and provides a vision of what a more involved form of fatherhood could be. The first part of the book is based on in-depth interviews with over 300 men living in the United States. Among the men interviewed are biological and adoptive fathers, gay fathers, fathers who share child custody with ex-spouses, and fathers who were or are currently in prison. This extensive data set enables the authors to examine in great depth the many meanings that men associate with fatherhood, their parenting and coparenting strategies, and personal fears about failing at parenthood. Marsiglio and Roy then draw upon their broad knowledge of family research and social policy to conceptualize a framework for enhancing men’s involvement as fathers in their children’s lives. Their proposed strategies would enlist stakeholders from local communities and school boards, legislators, parents, employers, and educators who, ideally, would work together to transform hegemonic practices of fathering. Marsiglio and Roy’s policy and programmatic proposals do not advocate for a particular parenting arrangement for children. Rather, they identify overlapping areas of concern among presumed stakeholders regarding men’s parenting practices and outline key components of potential programs for enhancing involved fathering practices. The authors’ use of qualitative data to help the reader to understand which programs and policies are needed is incredibly convincing. The book will be of great interest to family scholars, policymakers, and local community leaders alike. Although Nurturing Dads is one of countless books published on the topic of parenting, the volume is distinctive in that it links men’s roles as fathers to the ‘‘stalled’’ feminist revolution and identifies the steps that would need to be taken by men to help ‘‘un-stall’’ it. Feminist scholars have argued for years that drastic changes in how men fulfill personal family responsibilities are required for equality between the sexes to become a reality. Feminist scholars contend that un-stalling the revolution requires transformation of work organizations and paid employment in ways that support workers’ family obligations and involvements, and transformation of society in ways that place a premium on reproductive labor (childcare, domestic labor, etc.). But where exactly does this overhaul of gender practices, parent-child relations, and by implication, capitalism, begin? Are such transformations possible, especially in the current socioeconomic context of the United States? Given that most U.S. citizens would surely resist mandates issued by lawmakers to require men to do more carework, work organizations to make jobs family-friendly, or for states to pay for childcare, coalitionbuilding and long-term strategies are clearly required. Marsiglio and Roy acknowledge that support for their proposals would have to be widespread. They outline the Nurturing Dads: Social Initiatives for Contemporary Fatherhood, by William Marsiglio and Kevin Roy. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 2012. 290pp.

Unsettling Universities' Incongruous, Gendered Bureaucratic Structures: A Case-study Approach

35.00 paper. ISBN: 97808715 45664.