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Building on previous theory and research, we propose a 'structural relational' view of the sex gap in small business success. Our findings, based on analyses of data from 423 small business owners in Iowa, show support for our model and suggest that links between owners, social relational processes, business structure, and small business success operate differently depending on the industry location of the business and the owner's sex. Results also indicate that the business owner's sex has direct and indirect effects on business success. This finding suggests that social relations, organizations, and institutions are all gendered in ways that influence the sex gap in sales, but that further research is needed to more fully explain sex differences in small business success. We discuss these and other findings in terms of their theoretical and practical implications, and suggest directions for future research.

The victim-blaming tendency toward people with AIDS was examined in relation to gender, fraternity-sorority affiliation, classification (freshmen vs. others), religion (Catholic vs. others), and academic major (business college vs. others) in a survey of 818 students at a midwestern state university in the United States. Desired social distance from gay men and lesbians, the intervening variable in these relations, significantly mediated the indirect effect of fraternity-sorority affiliation, classification, and gender on the victim-blaming tendency. Gender and desired social distance were found to be significant direct determinants of the victim-blaming tendency toward people with AIDS. The study suggests that attitudes toward gay men and lesbians must change if attitudes toward people with AIDS are to change., A number of studies have suggested that there is a human tendency to attribute other people's successes to external factors and their failures to internal factors (D. T Miller & [...]

Until now, no general scales have been available for measuring victim or society blaming. This constraint has been an impediment to policymaking with regard to those who are affected by social problems. Four scales were constructed: stable victim-blaming scale, unstable victim-blaming scale, stable society-blaming scale, and unstable society-blaming scale. Based on the results of the preliminary exploratory factor analysis and the reliability coefficients, the unstable society-blaming scale was deleted from further analysis. Then, a confirmatory factor analysis using the LISREL 7 program was conducted to evaluate the parameter estimates of the scale items and examine the construct validity of the 3 scales. The scales were judged to have construct validity with satisfactory reliability.

A 'reverse' Social Distance Scale was created by modifying Bogardus's Social Distance Scale, to measure minority groups' perceptions of the social distance established by the majority group between itself and minority groups. The Reverse Social Distance Scale (Guttman's coefficient of reproduciblity = 0.99) differentiated between the African American students and the other two groups of minority students in the present sample - Hispanic students and Others - but did not differentiate between the latter two groups. The relationships between the participants' choices of self-identification terms and their scores on the Reverse Social Distance Scale were varied., The social distance between a minority group and the majority group - the most powerful group, but not necessarily the largest - has been postulated by the present authors to [...]