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This paper aims to study the relationship between structure and agency of Indian women executives in the area of work-life balance in a developing and globalized context. It examines social production in a collectivist culture.

The approach is qualitative and interpretative. Semi-structured interviews of 105 senior women executives from major metropolitan cities in India (Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai) form the rich data for this research. It uses sociological theories of McNay and Bourdieu to discuss the narratives of women executives.

The agency of women executives in India is influenced by cultural meta-narratives of marriage and motherhood. They experience conflict in the home front and less at the work place. Their negotiations with their structures reveal a nuanced agency wherein they try to fit cultural roles and also seek self fulfillment in a career.

First, it includes women executives only from the corporate sector. Second, opinions expressed by women executives alone have been taken for this study and is not cross-validated by opinions of others. This study is also limited to socio-cultural roles and expectations from women executives. Other variables that affect agency are not examined.

This study contributes to the understanding of how women executives, who have a greater agency, negotiate their structural constraints and how these actions contribute to social production.

It studies the societal impact of the agency of women executives in India.

The study provides a theoretical insight into structure and agency of women executives in India and thus adds an Indian perspective to the gender discourse.

The overarching aim of this chapter is to explore the existing status of mentoring in accounting firms in India and Malaysia, to understand whether or not mentoring is gendered in these country contexts, and to investigate the impact of the size of the firm and country context on mentoring. The mentoring framework is used as a theoretical lens to understand the orientation of principals and partners towards the existing and future mentoring support and activities of micro-sized, small-sized, medium-sized, and family-owned accounting firms operating in both India and Malaysia. Data obtained from 40 in-depth interviews (n = 20 in India and n = 20 in Malaysia) are analyzed using qualitative data analysis software NVivo12. The findings obtained from the study indicate that mentoring support exists informally in accounting firms, mentoring support offered and mentoring activities undertaken are gendered, and the nature, extent and type of mentoring offered in accounting firms varies according to the size of the firm in both countries. The chapter presents important practical, theoretical and methodological implications of the study for avoiding gendered mentoring practices in accounting firms.

Numerous studies on Western samples exist on work–family conflict (WFC) and work–family enrichment (WFE). Generalizing such results to other cultures may lead to erroneous interpretations of results. The present study emphasizes the role of different types of support on both work–family conflict and enrichment among university faculty in India.

An online survey was administered to university faculty in India. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses.

Results based on a sample of 199 university faculty in India indicated that supervisor and coworker support did not significantly reduce work–family conflict but increased work–family enrichment. The type of family support (instrumental versus emotional) had an impact, particularly on work-family enrichment.

Research on work–family dynamics in India is still in its nascent stage. This study attempted to address this gap by studying both conflict and enrichment dynamics in the family and work lives of university faculty in India.

Recent gender-related research has focused on how gender affects work–life balance (WLB), particularly whether men and women have similar difficulties balancing work and family demands. However, to broaden WLB research beyond its concentration on employees to a different population, this study investigates the WLB experiences of single student-working mothers.

This article uses a qualitative study using three focus groups to compare Nigerian and British single student-working mothers' WLB experiences and coping strategies or mechanisms adopted in these two contexts.

The findings indicate that, regardless of nationality, single student-working mothers are affected by inter-role conflict, role ambiguity, role strain, role overload and external role pressures, which make achieving WLB a herculean task. Nevertheless, given the different political, economic and socio-cultural landscapes of the two countries, the extent to which the aforementioned factors impact single student-working mothers varies and influences the range of coping mechanisms adopted in the two contexts.

The insights gleaned from this study suggest that there are huge challenges for single student-working mothers in terms of achieving WLB due to their status as students, workers and mothers. Combining these roles negatively affect their WLB and level of productivity and effectiveness, at home, at work and at university. This poses significant implications for human resource structures, policies and practices. The authors suggest that single student-mothers should learn from their counterparts' experiences and coping mechanisms, and that organisations and government should also provide adequate support to help them combine their challenging roles. This would ease the tension associated with combining multiple roles and enhance their well-being and WLB.

The study calls for a re-examination of WLB policies and practices at organisational and national levels to ensure that single student-working mothers are well supported to enhance their productivity and WLB.

This paper aims to explore and compare academics’ experiences of managing work-life balance (WLB) in the British and Chinese contexts. The authors have three specific purposes. Firstly, to investigate whether there are marked gender differences in either context, given female and male academics’ work is considered fully comparable. Secondly, to examine contextual factors contributing to gender differences that influence and shape decisions in WLB and career paths. Thirdly, to explore the gendered consequences and implications.

A cross-national and multilevel analytical approach to WLB was chosen to unpick and explore gender land contextual differences and their influence on individual academics’ coping strategies. To reflect the exploratory nature of uncovering individual experience and perceptions, the authors used in-depth, semi-structured interviews. In total, 37 academics participated in the study, comprised of 18 participants from 6 universities in the UK and 19 participants from 6 universities in China.

This study reveals gendered differences in both the British and Chinese contexts in three main aspects, namely, sourcing support; managing emotions; and making choices, but more distinct differences in the latter context. Most significantly, it highlights that individual academics’ capacity in cultivating and using coping strategies was shaped simultaneously by multi-layered factors at the country level, the HE institutional level and the individual academics’ level.

Very few cross-cultural WLB studies explore gender differences. This cross-national comparative study is of particular value in making the “invisible visible” in terms of the gendered nature of choices and decisions within the context of WLB. The study has significant implications for female academics exercising individual scope in carving out a career, and for academic managers and institutions, in terms of support, structure and policy.

In times of vivid debates on the inclusion of women on boards, the purpose of this paper is to shed a new light on the composition of boardrooms in emerging market firms by investigating how family and state ownership affect board-gender diversity in the emerging economies.

This study uses Tobit regression to examine the effect of firm ownership on board-gender diversity. A panel data set of Chinese and Indian firms for the period 2004-2013 is used to conduct this study.

The results show a negative and significant impact of family and state ownership on the proportion of women directors. However, this relationship is seen to be reverse if the firm is operating in international markets. Notably, a negative relationship was seen to persist between ownership structure and board-gender diversity for both female executive and independent board members, whereas a positive impact of internationalization was observed only for independent female directors.

This research addresses the board-gender diversity issue in emerging economies by focusing on firm characteristics which are unique to their business context. Further, this study identifies the conditions under which emerging market firms assimilate or proscribe women on their boards by recognizing the salient features of firms from emerging markets. Hence, in doing so, new evidence is added to the studies on the determinants of board-gender diversity. Lastly, it advances the earlier literature based on resource dependency and agency views and demonstrates the importance of internationalization for the inclusion of women on corporate boards.

This study investigates the impact of female directors on firms' financial performance by scrutinizing the different roles they are empowered to fulfill.

This study examines the impact of the roles performed by female directors on firms' financial performance using a panel dataset of the top 100 listed Indian firms over a period of 5 years. The study uses an appropriate panel data model for empirical analysis. For the robustness evaluation, a two-stage least square (2SLS) with the instrumental variable model were used.

The findings reveal a significantly positive impact of the total percentage of female directors on firms' financial performance. Further, by disentangling the impact of the total percentage of female directors between independent directors and executive directors, the study shows that independent female directors make a significant positive contribution to their firms' financial performance. By contrast, the performance impact of female executive directors was insignificant. In addition, the findings reveal that firms with a higher proportion of independent female directors outperform firms with a higher percentage of female executive directors.

This study is the first of its kind to unravel the performance impact of female directors and distinguish between the roles of independent directors and executive directors in the context of the emerging market of India, after the imposition of a gender quota for corporate boards.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intergenerational occupational mobility for young women (vis-à-vis their mothers) in India and six of its states from its diverse geographic regions which contribute 39 percent of the Indian population.

The study uses transition/mobility matrices and multiple mobility measures for examination of intergenerational occupational mobility among young females in India by using the data from the “India Youth Survey: Situation and Needs” from the year 2006 to 2007.

The study finds that intergenerational occupational mobility among the young women in India is about 71 percent, but surprisingly it is predominantly downwards. The urban areas have higher occupational mobility than the rural areas. However, upward intergenerational occupational mobility is lower among the young SC/ST women compared to the young women belonging to the “Others” caste category. Moreover, upward mobility in the economically and demographically poorer states is much lower than that of other states.

The present study is the only study which examines how women perform vis-à-vis their mothers in terms of occupational attainment in the Indian context.

This study aims to understand how female executive travellers should be characterized by inter-winning socio-economic segmentation and leisure travel motivation.

This study identifies push factors as a motivation for leisure travel among female executives in India. Quantitative research methodology was applied based on 892 online responses to a questionnaire. Principal component analysis was applied to identify the underlying dimensions of push motivational items.

The findings disclose five-factor dimensions of self-esteem; knowledge- and novelty-seeking; stimulus; escape; and self-recognition. Among the five identified dimensions, stimulus was the most important factor for motivating female executives to travel for leisure, followed by knowledge and novelty-seeking.

This study was conducted on 1,100 female executive travellers, meaning the results are only valid for this cultural context. All data was collected through a referral chain network survey among female executives via Google survey forms. While segmenting types of travellers amongst females, usage of push motivation framework as a variable remains pervasive in tourism research.

Although literature on female travel motivation is abundant, however, to the authors’ knowledge, empirical studies that focus on female executives leisure travel motivations are still rare. These findings are, therefore, valuable for illuminating tourism stakeholders to cater this potential segment more customisedly.

The author provides an insider view of women directors' selections on corporate boards from the empirical setting of India and find if the recruitment practices in this space discriminate against women.

The study collected data from a diverse cohort of 27 directors through semi-structured interviews. The data were analysed by applying an interpretative inductive approach and using the software NVivo's 12-plus version.

The author’s findings show that board recruiters present different selection criteria and processes to women candidates depending upon heterogeneity among candidates' professional standing. Recruiters view women directors as a diverse cohort and value resourceful and experienced women when making recruitment decisions; these women directors are also found influencing directors' selection processes.

The results question the underlying assumptions of prejudice against women as posited by the feminist and social identity theorists without accounting for the heterogeneity among women and situations. By proposing the female-gender stereotyping deactivation theory in top leadership matters, such as board selections, the author argues that stereotyping becomes irrelevant in the strategic decisions of board selections. This new theorisation about women's access to leadership roles will help the cause of women empowerment both at a cognitive and practical level. Future researchers can test the gender deactivation theory among women leaders in diverse cultural contexts by looking at the intra-cohort differences among women leaders.