Women-Owned Businesses in Lowell: Understanding the Local in a Broader Context

Meg A. Bond, P.D.
Meg A. Bond is the Director of the Center for Women and Work and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She is a community psychologist whose work focuses on the interrelationships among issues of diversity, empowerment, and organizational processes. She has published and conducted research on the dynamics of race and gender in the workplace, sexual harassment, and collaboration among diverse constituencies in community settings. She is particularly interested in the articulation of a feminist community psychology. Her current research programs include an analysis of organizational approaches to diverse employees and an exploration of the impact of organizational culture and conditions of work for women on their health and well being in collaboration with Drs. Pyle and Punnett.

Dr. Bond is an active member and former President of the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA: Division 27 of APA), Past Chair of the American Psychological Association Committee on Women, and a National Board Member of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI: Division 9 of APA). She is a Fellow of SCRA and the American Psychological Association, as well as a member of the Senior Editorial Board for the American Journal of Community Psychology. In 2001, Dr. Bond received a career award from SCRA for "Special Contributions to Community Psychology" for her work to enhance sensitivity to diversity concerns within the field and profession of community psychology.

Jean L. Pyle, Ph.D.
Jean L. Pyle, Senior Associate at the Center for Women and Work, is a Professor Emerita in the Department of Regional Economic and Social Development at UMass Lowell. Dr. Pyle served as Co-Director of the CWW from 1998-2002. An economist, her most recently published research spans several research areas. One line of research analyzes the effects of globalization and economic restructuring on women throughout the world. She examines how key global trends have resulted in worldwide production networks that are distinctly gendered – with a rise of women in sex work, domestic service, and export-oriented production. She discusses how shifts in the international power structure have pushed governments in many countries to promote such sectors, in spite of their largely adverse impact on women workers. A second line of research, conducted in partnership with Meg A. Bond, analyzes factors that facilitate or constrain the effective use of diverse peoples in U.S. workplaces. This work has expanded to a wider research team, including Laura Punnett and students, which assesses the effect of a gendered work climate on health and work outcomes.

Another research interest of Dr. Pyle’s is consideration of the role of the university in promoting sustainable regional development, broadly defined. She co-edited Approaches to Sustainable Development: The Public University in the Regional Economy (2001) and is co-editor of the forthcoming Development: Globalization, Universities, and Issues of Sustainable Human Development. Both books are an outgrowth of the work of the Committee on Industrial Theory and Assessment (CITA) at UMass Lowell, a university-wide committee which Jean Co-chaired for four years. In the past, she has written about the impact of state policies (including employment, housing, reproductive rights, and family policies) on women's economic roles in Singapore and Ireland. She is the author of The State and Women in the Economy: Lessons from Sex Discrimination in the Republic of Ireland. She has consulted for UNIDO, The United Nations Industrial Development Organization, on gender and development issues.

Home - About Us - Bridge I - Bridge II - Bridge III - Bridge IV - Bridge V - Submission Guidelines - Related Links - University of Massachusetts Lowell

Contact Bridge Review: BridgeReview@uml.edu
Copyright © 2001 by The Bridge Review: Merrimack Valley Culture and University of Massachusetts Lowell. All Rights Reserved for compilation. Rights revert to individual contributors following publication. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher and individual contributor.