Bios, mythoi and women entrepreneurs: A Wynterian analysis of the intersectional impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-employed women and women-owned businesses

Abstract

Decolonial philosopher Sylvia Wynter theorises the human animal as formed by both bios and mythoi, or matter and meaning. This article adopts this ontological perspective to explore the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on UK self-employed women and women-owned businesses through an intersectional lens accounting for race, class and gender. We argue that unequal health outcomes from COVID-19 are not solely biological; rather, they are also the outcome of social inequalities. Drawing upon the Wynterian elaboration of Fanon’s work on sociogeny – the shaping of the embodied human experience by the norms of given society – to explain this phenomenon, we contend that the same inequalities emerging in health outcomes will be reflected in entrepreneurship and self-employment. Drawing on Labour Force Survey data for the past decade, we peer through the Wynterian prism of bios and mythoi to argue that marginalised entrepreneurs are likely to experience extreme precarity due to COVID-19 and so require targeted support.

Standing up against crisis-induced entrepreneurial uncertainty: Fewer teams, more habitual entrepreneurs

“…Only a minor fraction of women-led ventures in the overall population acquires venture capital funding (Rose, 2019), and there is hence, reason to assume that women founders establishing innovative startups are exceptionally well qualified and also more resilient than average. When Martinez Dy and Jayawarna (2020) thus, theorise in particular negative crisis effects for women entrepreneurs, these assumptions do not seem to hold for the ‘elite’ cohort establishing innovative ventures. Consequently, and in light of the results of the present analysis, in future research a more balanced perspective on gendered entrepreneurial situations seems appropriate that accounts for positive and negative effects simultaneously.…”

“…Uncertainty is likely to have effects (a) on whether ventures are started by individuals or by entrepreneurial teams and (b) on whether novice or experienced entrepreneurs are involved. Moreover, the crisis had gendered effects on existing businesses (Martinez Dy and Jayawarna, 2020), and this is (c) likely to apply to newly founded ventures.…”

“…Infection control measures such as physical distancing at home combined with school closures clearly limit women’s economic capacity. Martinez Dy and Jayawarna (2020) asses this situation quite pessimistically and equate women entrepreneurs with ‘marginalized entrepreneurs’ due to more general gendered social inequalities. Such inequalities are likely to lead to a negative impact on women entrepreneurship and self-employment over the crisis.…”

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Romanian Labor Market

“…However, there are authors who consider that through the COVID-19 pandemic, we are facing a common economic and health crisis of unprecedented proportions in recent history [9]. Regarding women's labor force participation, there are studies that conclude that it tends to increase with economic development (although the relationship is not direct or coherent at the country level) so that in the case of recessions, women's involvement could decrease [10][11][12].…”

Narratives of life‐maneuvering in reshaping new living space during Covid‐19: A case study of women activist in Manggarai Region, Eastern Indonesia

“…They have a social movement base, including; antihuman trafficking, antiviolence against women and children, young people's socio‐political participation, the humanitarian movement for orphaned children, supporting environmental sustainability, and strengthening “social‐preneurship” among young people. Thus, this narrative refers to the initiatives action and intervention conducted by women activists before and during the COVID‐19 to restructure their new living space (Bao, 2020; Martinez Dy & Jayawarna, 2020).…”