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Far from being united under the banner of sisterhood, American women opposed each other on the issue of gender equality in the 1970s–1980s. As the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) passed the US Congress in 1972, antifeminists mobilized under the lead of Phyllis Schlafly to prevent its ratification. Identified as major threat to traditional families, the ERA would have mandated that “equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex” (section 1). If this sociocultural and political struggle around women's rights revealed the different loyalties and interests of women at the time, it also testified to the institutional fragmentation of power in the country. Conservative women were not only fighting against feminism to preserve the privileged position they thought they occupied in the patriarchy; they were also animated by a strong anti-federal government sentiment. A combined examination of these antifeminist and anti-governmental stances reveals some the reasons why the ERA was eventually never added to the Constitution and could also explain why the United States is such a disunited country, especially regarding women's rights.

Recent US federal executive orders have prioritized equity within the federal government, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has declared equity as a foundational pillar in their 2022–2026 Strategic Plan. This research study investigates the distributive equity of the most locally disseminated FEMA grant, the Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG).

The Commonwealth of Virginia was selected for our research study due to its exposure to natural hazards, recent disaster losses, variance among local emergency management programs, and high-profile political disputes against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. EMPG data from 2020 to 2023 were analyzed for correlations with social vulnerability (SoVI®), community resilience (BRIC), previous disaster losses (SHELDUS), and the National Risk Index (NRI). A difference of means test was conducted on the jurisdictions that opted out of participation in the EMPG.

Virginia’s current EMPG funding is allocated disproportionately to wealthier local jurisdictions with lower social vulnerability, higher community resilience, and lower previous disaster losses. Jurisdictions that opted-out or received the minimum amounts had a disproportionately higher amount of total disaster losses.

This study provides a novel approach to evaluating the equity of public funding dedicated to local disaster preparedness. The findings are instructive to federal lawmakers, state governments and global initiatives in climate resilience with a similar allocation process focused solely on population sizes. The framework of this research study is easily replicable, and the metrics are publicly available for future researchers.

This study investigates how the interrelated elements of organizational roles – activities, motives, resources and relationships – are mobilized to construct a code of conduct for the proxy advisory (PA) industry in Europe.

This qualitative study uses archival documents from three consecutive regulatory consultations and 16 interviews with key stakeholders. It analyzes how different stakeholder groups (i.e. PA firms, investors, issuers and the regulator) perceive and mobilize the elements of PA firms’ role to construct the accountability regime’s boundaries (accountability problem and action, and users and providers of accounts).

This study shows how PA firms, investors, issuers and the regulator refer to the perceived motives behind PA firms’ activities to construct an accountability problem. The regulator accepted the motives of an information intermediary for PA firms’ role and required PA firms to develop a corresponding accountability action: a code of conduct. PA firms involved in developing the code of conduct formalized who is accountable to whom by aligning this accepted motive with their activities, relationships, and resources into a common role.

The study highlights how aligning role elements to reflect PA firms’ common roles enables the construction of an accountability regime that stakeholders accept as a means of regulation. Analyzing the role elements offers insights into the development and functioning of accountability regimes that rely on self-regulation. We also highlight the role of smaller regional firms in helping shape transnational accountability regimes.

China is playing an increasingly prominent role in global business. However, there has been relatively little research on Chinese inpatriates working in Western countries, particularly in non-Anglo cultural contexts. This study attempts to explore the process of cross-cultural adjustment (CCA) and integration into corporate headquarters of Chinese inpatriates working in France, including the favorable factors that accelerate this process.

Based on a qualitative, single-case study of Group X, a pseudonym for a French multinational enterprise, the authors drew on semi-structured interviews with 18 Chinese inpatriates and investigated their CCA and integration process at the French headquarters of their employer.

The CCA and integration process of Chinese inpatriates at the French headquarters includes three stages: honeymoon and/or crisis period, adjustment and/or integration period and mutual growth period. Chinese inpatriates mainly face language barriers and Sino-French cross-cultural challenges. They overcome these challenges by learning the language and culture of the host country and using co-cultural and cross-cultural Guanxi. Experiences vary, with some Chinese inpatriates bypassing the honeymoon and/or crisis stage and entering directly into the adjustment and/or integration stage and some even leapfrogging both initial phases to attain a stage of mutual growth. Favorable factors for this CCA and integration acceleration include experience of living abroad, the host country language proficiency, organizational service support and the English working environment.

The study enhances the theoretical framework of Chinese expatriates’ psychological adjustment process through two key contributions. First, it enriches the three stages by incorporating new aspects, namely the honeymoon facet at the crisis stage, the integration into the headquarters facet at the self-adjust stage and the promoting organizational growth facet at self-growth stage. Second, it adds precision to the horizontal timeline by incorporating two additional initial points for the adjustment and integration process. Until now, Chinese inpatriates and the French context have received little attention, and this research takes a step forward by illuminating the CCA and integration process of Chinese inpatriates in this non-Anglophone country.