Re-booting gender in communication research and practice: a translational approach. ECREA 2018 special panel report

The special panel "Re-booting gender in communication research and practice: a translational approach" comprised a group of colleagues who are working together on two different projects around gender equality in the media, along with a contributor from the European Institute for Gender Equality. The panel responded to the conference theme in several ways, not least by placing gender equality front and centre as an important but often neglected element of media policy and practice. We argue that issues of gender are located at both the centre and the periphery of media and communication research in terms of content (representation), production (employment), policy (structure) and ownership (political economy). While all these aspects have been topics of significant research interest over the past few decades, a consideration of the ways in which gender is a differentiating feature of media content and media practice has often been a glaring omission in research design

Stories from the field:Women's networking as gender capital in entrepreneurial ecosystems

Women are underrepresented in successful entrepreneurial ecosystems and the creation of women-only entrepreneurial networks has been a widespread policy response. We examine the entrepreneurial ecosystem construct and suggest that it, and the role networks play in entrepreneurial ecosystems, can be analysed in terms of Bourdieu's socio-analysis as field, habitus and capital. Specifically, we develop the notion of gender capital as the skill set associated with femininity or from simply being recognized as feminine. We apply this to the development of women's entrepreneurial networks as a gender capital enhancing initiative. Using data from qualitative interviews with network coordinators and women entrepreneurs we reflect on the extent to which formally established women-only networks generate gender capital for their members and improve their ability to participate in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The paper concludes by drawing out the implications of our analysis for theory, entrepreneurial practice and economic development policy

Conditional representation : Gendered experiences of combining work and family among local politicians

This article focuses on working and living conditions among local politicians in Sweden, and on their experiences of combining political work and family life. Applying a sociological perspective on representation, we first map the working and living conditions represented among politicians, with a specific focus on gender and age. We then examine experiences of work-family conflict and subjective well-being, and investigate how these outcomes are related to gender, age, and working and living conditions. The main findings show significant gender differences in working and living conditions, and substantially higher levels of work-family conflict among young female politicians