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Investigates employment discrimination in Canadian Schools of Business. A review of Statistics Canada data on student (1971, 1978) and faculty composition (1980, 1985, 1989) demonstrates that the number of females as a percentage of undergraduate and graduate students of business has increased significantly as has the total percentage of female faculty. Females are, however, significantly under‐represented in senior academic positions of associate and full professors with little change over the study period. Discusses barriers to academic attainment and the consequences to feminist research in the administrative sciences.

Mentoring has been identified as a key strategy to career development and has been argued to be indispensable for women to advance to positions of power. For mentoring to succeed, it is imperative that mentors trust their protégés. However, recent research has suggested that male mentors trust their male protégés more so than their female protégés. Since women are frequently mentored by men, it is imperative that they gain the same level of trust as their male peers enjoy. According to an established model of trust, trust is shaped by the mentor's perceptions of protégé ability, benevolence and integrity, as well as perceptions of the risk inherent to mentoring. This exploratory research aims to examine what influences these perceptions to shed light on how protégés can gain the trust of their mentors.

Because little research has been conducted in this area, an exploratory qualitative design was chosen. Mayer, Davis and Schoorman's model of organizational trust is used as the theoretical framework.

This research sheds light on what predicts how trust is formed, fostered and lost in a mentoring context by examining factors that may influence perceptions of ability, benevolence, integrity and risk. Several protégé behaviors were identified that influenced perceptions of ability. Perceptions of benevolence were described as “feelings”. Perceptions of integrity were influenced by keeping confidences. Finally contextual factors, such as gender, were also identified as influencing the level of trust.

The sample size was based on only 24 mentors; as a consequence, the findings are exploratory in nature and not generalizable.

Trust has been identified as a critical component of an effective mentoring relationship. As a consequence, mentoring programs must include activities that assist in establishing and fostering trust between mentor and protégé.

Women are still under‐represented in positions of power. Mentoring has been widely adopted as a mechanism to help women climb the corporate ladder. The lack of female mentors frequently means that female protégés have to be mentored by men. If women are to break the “glass ceiling,” it is imperative that male mentors trust their female protégés to the same extent as their male protégés and provide them with the same career advancing opportunities.

Very little research has examined the role of trust in mentoring, although trust has been identified as a critical element in other organizational activities, such as leadership, performance appraisal, labor‐management relations, interpersonal cooperation, e‐commerce transactions and self‐managing work teams.

Investigates the lending needs of the self‐employed and of micro‐based businesses. Describes the lack of coherence between the evaluative criteria used in traditional lending models and the needs of business owners. Findings suggest that the standard “5 C” model for assessing the viability of loan applications does not meet the needs of the present business environment. Women business owners may be at a disadvantage when applying for a business loan as the supposedly “objective” criteria are applied in a “subjective” manner to the detriment of female entrepreneurs. Presents information on the characteristics of micro‐loan programmes and proposes a market approach to micro‐loan practices that is better adapted to changing finance opportunities.

Examines the incidence of sex role stereotyping and the relevance of selection and socialization in attitude formation among business and non‐business students. Compares findings to similar research undertaken in the United States, Great Britain and (the former) West Germany.

Data from a 1989 survey of over 600 middle‐level managers in a large Canadian corporation were analysed to examine the characteristics of jobs held by career‐family and career‐primary men and women. Hypotheses were developed based on human capital theory, statistical discrimination theory, and gender role congruence theory. Examining career outcomes suggested that participation in household labour had a significantly more negative association with men's hierarchical level than with women's. Implications for theory and suggestions for research are discussed.

Quebec was the first Canadian jurisdiction to legislate on pay equality. It did so through the adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedom, in 1976, a passive legislation since it is based on complaints. It seems to be a matter of time before the Quebec Government passes a pro‐active legislation on pay equity and, in doing so, it will likely draw its inspiration from the Pay Equity Act (PEA) passed by the Ontario Government in 1987. One of PEAs important features is the emphasis on institutional structures and practices in determining the appropriate unit for the purpose of achieving pay equity. In practice, such units will often match up with the usual job families (e.g. clerical or office vs production jobs). However, the historical development of jobs families is intertwined with the evolution of occupational segregation between men and women in the labour markets.