The discourse of entrepreneurial masculinities (and femininities)

Making sense of self-employment in late career: understanding the identity work of olderpreneurs

“…However, only those who subscribe to the underlying ideology are a success, those who cannot or will not subscribe are failures (Dannreuther and Perren, 2013). Members of marginalised groups such as women or ethnic minorities may be excluded where they engage in forms of enterprise not readily captured by the discourse, and therefore by surveys or other measures of entrepreneurial activity (Hamilton, 2013). This leads some to conclude that 'the concept of entrepreneurship seems to be discriminatory, gender-biased, ethnocentrically determined and ideologically controlled' (Ogbor, 2000: 629).…”

Gender, ethnicity and identity work in the family business

“…We thus go beyond the previous typical framing of gender relations as biologically determined positions embodied by men and women (Nicholson, 1994) and propose that in addition to focusing on "women in family business", scholars should focus on "gender relations within the family firm", and how these relations are related to the ways individual family business members do identity work. As Hamilton (2013a) argues, in the family business literature and in the management literature in general, whenever the family and work life is examined with a gender lens, researchers tend to conceptualize these life spheres as conflicting because the starting point is the woman's motherhood and housekeeping duties (rather than work life). Hamilton (2013a) therefore calls for research that goes beyond the fairly simplistic and dualistic work-family balance issue, which only serves to reproduce the established notions of universal womanhood.…”

“…They may also be intersecting, which shape how habitats of meanings are negotiated and acted upon by individuals as they actively and continuously work out their identity in relation to others and as historically and socially embedded beings (Ashcraft, 2013;Ely & Padavic, 2007;Ybema et al, 2009). We recognize that notions of family and business themselves can take different meanings to different people at particular times (Hamilton, 2013a;Kondo, 1990).…”

“…Highlighting the intersecting nature of gender and ethnic relations, this study avoids to decontextualize the diverse forms and settings of family businesses where family and business are seen as homogenous constructs (Howorth, Rose, Hamilton, & Westhead, 2010;Melin & Nordqvist, 2007). We add to the literature regarding how relations of gender are constitutive (Hamilton, 2013a(Hamilton, , 2013bMulholland, 2003) and negotiated features of family businesses (Al-Dajani, Bika, & Swail, Forthcoming;Fletcher, 2014). In relation to ethnicity, we bring in the issue of migration, which allows us to problematize identity work of individual family business members further since taking one ready-to-wear model provided in one particular cultural context as relevant might prove to be difficult in another setting (Gupta, 2013).…”

Gender theory and the family business

“…The field of entrepreneurship is not alone in assuming a male experience as the norm. The same assumption is embedded in management studies and economics (Hamilton, 2013).…”