It is suggested that more "role model" women entrepreneurs are needed. However, the gender gap in entrepreneurship remains. This study analyses the narratives of 51 role model women entrepreneurs to explore how they represent women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. We found that in accordance with the contemporary pressure for women to succeed and perform personally and professionally, the voice of the (super)woman doing "individualized entrepreneurial femininity" dominates. The role models narratives obscure race, class, and age barriers; reproduce prevailing gender stereotypes; normalize discriminatory workplace treatment and depict entrepreneurship as an appropriate alternative for working mothers. Implications for policy makers are presented.*In an ironic nod to the "superwoman" theme of this article, the birth of three babies and three respective maternity leaves took place over the course of this research project. Milo, Selim and Miguel, this publication is dedicated to you.Janice Byrne is Associate Professor of Human Resources and Organizational Behaviour in the Management
Governments are seeking to develop entrepreneurial competencies among today's technology, science, and engineering graduates. However, the creation of "bilingual" graduates who have dual technical and managerial competencies is thwarted by students' inferior teamwork and interpersonal skills. In education, what is taught is inextricably bound to how it is taught (Dewey, 1916). Current pedagogies in engineering education are insufficiently adapted to student learning style needs (Felder & Silverman, 1988), and the management component of engineering education remains underdeveloped. This problem is keenly felt in one French engineering school where students struggle with a team-based innovation project. We detail efforts made to equip students with teamwork skills by using games as a pedagogical device. Student teams compete to build weight resistant structures using only spaghetti sticks and sewing thread. Their written feedback forms the primary qualitative data for this study. Individual student interviews were subsequently carried out to further uncover potential learning outcomes. We found that students' responses to the spaghetti game were overwhelmingly positive. Their commentary also illustrates concrete learning of many crucial teamwork processes. Finally, we discuss what makes this pedagogical innovation work and how it should be further studied.
This article theorizes how CEOs ‘do gender’ in management succession and how this impacts their legitimacy as successor CEOs. Drawing on the analysis of seven incumbent-successor dyads in a family business setting, we document the multiple masculine (entrepreneurial, authoritarian and paternalistic) and feminine (relational, individualized and maternal) gender identities that both men and women CEO successors enact. We contribute to the CEO succession literature by revealing the different ways that CEOs can ‘do masculinity’ in their pursuit of legitimacy and also expose how CEO successors ‘do femininity’. In particular, we show how men and women CEOs enact relational femininity to garner stakeholders’ support as well as build alliances to temper change initiatives. We contribute to the gender and organization literature by providing an understanding of how certain ways of doing gender in organizations facilitate or hinder the legitimacy of CEO successors.
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