Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to critically explore media representations of opting-out and how these present particular professional identities as appropriate career choices for women. Through an examination of a UK women's magazine the paper looks at how opting-out in favour of work...

A key characteristic of small business service firms is their capacity to draw on similar businesses or self‐employed professionals in order to compete with large organisations. This paper presents a qualitative account of the ways in which three small firms from the business services sector...