‘The Best Time is Now!’: The Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of Women Opting in to Self‐Employment

Abstract

This paper explores the potential for the concepts of time and space, together with the analogy of landscapes, to aid the exploration and understandings of women's careers. Drawing upon case studies of women who chose to opt in to self‐employment, we examine how the multi‐faceted histories of these women are drawn upon as they remember the past, explain contemporary experiences, and anticipate their futures. All the women spoke of opting in to self‐employment as the best of times; they talked of greater control over work content, the relationship between family, gender and paid work, and self‐determinism and autonomy. They noted times when their careers were frayed but only in retrospect could they assess the context, consequences and impact of events. The framework of careerscapes — our unique blending of the notion of careers along with socio‐economic and geographical interpretations of scapes — offers a framework to examine frayed careers and multiple aspects of working and caring over time and space.

Rebooting and Rerouting: Women's Articulations of Frayed Careers in Science, Engineering and Technology Professions

“…In some respects the Rerouting narrative presents a journey and similar reflections to the careerscapes that women turning to self‐employment in mid‐career have articulated (McKie et al ., ). However, central to these accounts is the sense of inability to resume the career of their choice due to perceived constraints of SET career expectations, and thus their careerscapes have been shaped by the terrain in which they find themselves professionally.…”

“…The importance of seeing such transitions as a holistic and life‐long process is emphasized by McKie et al . (), who propose the concept of ‘careerscape’ to characterize women's movements in and out of work over the life course, while Maher () argues that ‘disruption is normal’ for women in her study of nursing careers. In their kaleidoscope career model, Mainiero and Sullivan () conceptualize the relational nature of women's careers and take account of different priorities at different points in the life course.…”

A Look at Women's Transition From Formal Labor to Self-Employment Based on Endogenous Stimuli

“…Her objective was to use the definition of "boundaryless career" as a perspective to explore the understanding related to the life stage of motherhood with the transition to self-employment, as a form of autonomy in the work scenario, with incomes and continuous professional identities. According to McKie, Biese and Jyrkinen (2013), in turn, by opting for self-employment, women are trying to create a career that lays the foundation for gender relations and allows "the cultivation of a more enjoyable scenario through which they can cross to a next phase of their career". Understanding stimuli and motivations on female entrepreneurship is important in understanding the significance of the role of women, not only in the creation, but also in the execution and growth of business as an impacting factor in the economic growth of a society (Acs, Bardasi, Estrin, & Svejnar, 2011).…”

Motivational Factors: Drivers Behind Women Entrepreneurs’ Decision to Start an Entrepreneurial Venture in Croatia

“…A positive attitude towards controlling one's own behavior significantly influences the decision to start an entrepreneurial venture (Goliath et al, 2014). Therefore, it is more likely that people with a high internal locus of control will have a higher tendency towards entrepreneurship than those who attribute their behavior and outcomes of events to fate (Shane et al, 2003;McKie et al, 2013). The more people rely on their own expectations and beliefs, the more likely it is that their attitudes will result in action.…”