Katrin Fischer

At any given moment, almost a quarter of the world’s population could be experiencing perimenopause or menopause, according to the World Health Organization. Symptoms may range from severe hot flashes to intense brain fog to debilitating pain. The Mayo Clinic discovered that in the United States alone, menopause causes women an estimated $1.8 billion annually owing to missed working time. Although menopause may impact almost half of the world’s population, there is still little medical, organizational, or policy research to support women during this time. In this article, we focus specifically on the work-related challenges that perimenopausal and menopausal women face as they navigate the heights of their careers while undergoing significant hormonal and bodily changes.

Women entrepreneurs consistently raise far less investor funding than men. In this study, we consider how women’s use of gender-similar language may influence investor decisions on venture pitches. Contrary to theories of communicative style and gender, we find women do not apply linguistic styles traditionally attributed to women in crafting their pitches. Instead, women entrepreneurs use language similar to their male counterparts when pitching to investors. Consistent with gender role congruity theory, we found that a masculine linguistic style is generally more effective in pitching situations, with limitations. Overly masculine language had a negative impact for both male and female entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest women entrepreneurs have a clear understanding of the power of the spoken language and the impact of the words they use when pitching investors for funding.
•Contrary to communicative style theory, women do not use linguistic styles traditionally attributed to women when pitching.•Findings suggest women entrepreneurs seem to recognize that “words matter” and avoid the use of gendered language.•Both masculine and feminine linguistic styles in pitches had negative influences on investor interest in the venture.•One masculine linguistic style, inspirational language, did increase investor interest.

Essex Farm, in the town of Essex, New York, employs both traditional and innovative agricultural methods to support the environmentally friendly production of healthy foods, an innovative business model, and a variety of educational initiatives. Its owners, Mark and Kristin Kimball, have become leaders and role models in the movement to revive family farms across the country, revitalize small towns, and reinvent a sustainable food system in the face of climate change and environmental degradation. An experiment in sustainable agriculture, in food entrepreneurship, and in community building, Essex Farm raises important questions about the economic sustainability of the new food movement, and about the future of agriculture in general. The case describes this experiment and addresses key questions that arise when diversified organic farming is proposed as both a lifestyle and an alternative to large-scale industrial farming.

With the rise of new media, it is easy to overlook, not only old media but also mummery-the arcane medium of the flesh-street performances, stage shows, plays, and carnivals. In this paper, we look at the case of Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping. We begin by re-introducing the term 'mummer' as a traditional medium of expression and conceptually locate it relative to both old and new media. We then provide a brief introduction to captivity narrative studies, specifically looking at the role of humor in providing aesthetic freedom in incarceration. Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping serve as our case study to show how humor can be used to liberate citizens' thinking around the three Cs of American political ideology: church, capitalism, and consumption; and to highlight how Reverend adroitly integrates the medium mummery, old media, and new media into a unified whole to free consumers from the dominant ideology of US political interlocution. We conclude by offering ways to extend and elaborate upon this research. Mummery Captivity studies New media