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Accounting for change: professional status, gender disadvantage and self‐employment

Susan Marlow (Reader in HRM at the Small Business and Enterprise Research Group, Department of HRM, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.)
Sara Carter (Professor of Marketing at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.)

Women in Management Review

ISSN: 0964-9425

Article publication date: 1 January 2004

3750

Abstract

Research investigating female self‐employment has often highlighted gender‐based differences in the performance of women‐owned firms. Some studies have linked the under‐performance of women‐owned firms to the lower levels of capitalisation used at business inception, associating this with disadvantages accrued in waged work and occupational segregation more generally. Drawing on this association, there has been a tendency to treat self‐employed women as an undifferentiated group, failing to recognise heterogeneity therein. Considers the impact of the possession of professional qualifications on self‐employment and to what degree they might have the potential to mobilise substantial business capital. The discussion explores the influence of gender in the work and career experiences of women and whether the advantages accrued from professional status might challenge gender disadvantage within self‐employment. Results are presented from an exploratory study of male‐owned and female‐owned accountants in independent practice, which suggest that gender disadvantage persists, even within the context of professional practice.

Keywords

Citation

Marlow, S. and Carter, S. (2004), "Accounting for change: professional status, gender disadvantage and self‐employment", Women in Management Review, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 5-17. https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420410518395

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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