This article theorizes and evaluates the relationship between inflexible organizational practices, family factors, and gendered pathways into entrepreneurship. Using novel survey data collected by the Harris Poll, I evaluate how a decision to pass up a job that lacks flexibility is associated with self–employment, and examine how this relationship varies by gender, family status, and educational attainment. Findings suggest that passing up a job is associated with women's, but not men's, self–employment. Moreover, motherhood and a spouse's employment status predict women's self–employment, but only if they have sacrificed a job opportunity.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AckerJ. (1990). Hierarchies, jobs and bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender & Society, 4(2), 139–158.
2.
AldrichH.E. & CliffJ.E. (2003). The pervasive effects of family on entrepreneurship: Toward a family embeddedness perspective. Journal of Business Venturing, 18, 573–597.
3.
AreniusP. & MinnitiM. (2005). Perceptual variables and nascent entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 24(3), 233–247.
4.
BirdB. & BrushC. (2002). A gendered perspective on organizational creation. Entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice, 26, 41–65.
5.
Blair–LoyM. (2003). Competing devotions: Career and family among women executives. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
6.
BrushC.G., de BruinA., & WelterF. (2009). A gender–aware framework for women's entrepreneurship. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 1, 8–24.
7.
BudigM.J. (2006). Intersections on the road to self–employment: Gender, family and occupational class. Social Forces, 84(4), 2223–2239.
8.
CarrD. (1996). Two paths to self–employment? Women's and men's self–employment in the United States. Work and Occupations, 23, 26–53.
9.
ChaY. (2010). Reinforcing separate spheres: The effect of spousal overwork on the employment of men and women in dual–earner households. American Sociological Review, 75(2), 303–329.
10.
ChaY. (2013). Overwork and the persistence of gender segregation in occupations. Gender & Society, 27(2), 158–184.
11.
CliffJ. (1998). Does one size fit all? Exploring the relationship between attitudes towards growth, gender, and business size. Journal of Business Venturing, 13(6), 523–542.
12.
CorrellS.J., BenardS., & PaikI.Y. (2007). Getting a job: Is there a motherhood penalty?American Journal of Sociology, 112(5), 1297–1338.
13.
CorrellS.J., KellyE.L., O'ConnorL.T., & WilliamsJ.C. (2014). Redesigning, redefining work. Work and Occupations, 41(1), 3–17.
14.
CraigL., PowellA., & CortisN. (2012). Self–employment, work–family time, and the gender division of labour. Work, Employment and Society, 26(5), 716–734.
15.
DavisA. & ShaverK. (2012). Understanding gendered variations in business growth intentions across the life course. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 36, 495–512.
16.
DucheneautB. (1997). Women entrepreneurs in SME's. Report prepared for the OECD conference on women entrepreneurs in small and medium enterprises: A major force for innovation and job creation. Paris: OECD.
17.
EpsteinC.F., SeronC., OglenskyB., & SauteR. (1999). The part–time paradox: Time norms, professional lives, family and gender. New York: Routledge.
18.
GlassJ. & CamariggV. (1992). Gender, parenthood, and job–family compatibility. American Journal of Sociology, 98(1), 131–151.
19.
HaysS. (1998). The cultural contradictions of motherhood. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
20.
HochschildA.R. & MachungA. (1989/2003). The second shift. New York: Penguin Books.
21.
HughesK.D. (2005). Female enterprise in the new economy. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
22.
JenningsJ.E. & BrushC.G. (2013). Research on women entrepreneurs: Challenges to (and from) the broader entrepreneurship literature?The Academy of Management Annals, 7(1), 661–713.
23.
LambertS.J. (2009). Making a difference for hourly employees. In CrouterA. C. & BoothA. (Eds.), Work life policies (pp. 169–206). Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.
24.
LareauA. (2003). Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
25.
LoscoccoK. & BirdS.R. (2012). Gendered paths: Why women lag behind men in small business success. Work and Occupations, 39(2), 183–219.
26.
MacDonaldC. (2009). What's culture got to do with it? Mothering ideologies as barriers to gender equity. In GornickJ. C. & MeyersM. (Eds.), Gender equality: Transforming family divisions of labor (pp. 411–434). London: Verso Books.
27.
MattisM.C. (2004). Women entrepreneurs: Out from under the glass ceiling. Women in Management Review, 19(3), 154–163.
28.
McGowanP., RedekerC.L., CooperS.Y., & GreenanK. (2012). Female entrepreneurship and the management of business and domestic roles: Motivations, expectations and realities. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 24, 53–72.
29.
MooreD.P. & ButtnerE.H. (1997). Women entrepreneurs: Moving beyond the glass ceiling. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
30.
MunschC., RidgewayC., & WilliamsJ. (2014). Pluralistic ignorance and the flexibility bias: Understanding and mitigating flextime and flexplace bias at work. Work and Occupations, 41(1), 40–62.
31.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). (2014). Preferences for self–employment. Available at http://stats.oecd.org
32.
PotuchekJ.L. (1997). Who supports the family? Gender and breadwinning in dual earner marriages. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
33.
PresserH.B. (2003). Working in a 24/7 economy: Challenges for American families. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
34.
RenzulliL.A., AldrichH., & MoodyJ. (2000). Family matters: Gender, networks and entrepreneurial outcomes. Social Forces, 79(2), 523–546.
35.
ReynoldsJ. & RenzulliL.A. (2005). Economic freedom or self–imposed strife: Work–life conflict, gender, and self–employment. Research in the Sociology of Work, 15, 33–60.
36.
SharoneO. (2004). Engineering overwork: Bell–curve management at a high–tech firm. In EpsteinC. F. & KallebergA. L. (Eds.), Fighting for time: Shifting boundaries of work and social life (pp. 191–218). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
37.
SheltonL.M. (2006). Female entrepreneurs, work–family conflict, and venture performance: New insights in the work–family interface. Journal of Small Business Management, 44, 285–297.
38.
StoneP. (2007). Opting out? Why women really quit careers and head home. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
39.
TaniguchiH. (2002). Determinants of women's entry into self–employment. Social Science Quarterly, 83, 875–893.
40.
ThébaudS. (2015). Business as plan B? Institutional foundations of gender inequality in entrepreneurship across 24 industrialized countries. Administrative Science Quarterly, 60(4), 671–711.
41.
TichenorV.J. (2005). Earning more and getting less: Why successful wives can't buy equality. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
42.
WeedenK. (2005). Is there a flexiglass ceiling? Flexible work arrangements and wages in the United States. Social Science Research, 34(2), 454–482.
43.
WilliamsJ. (2001). Unbending gender: Why family and work conflict and what to do about it. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
44.
YangT. & AldrichH.E. (2014). Who's the boss? Explaining gender inequality in entrepreneurial teams. American Sociological Review, 79(2): 303–327.
