The Gendering of Entrepreneurship Context

Abstract

The paper builds on the understanding of context as suggested by Welter (2011) who introduced different dimensions of context along a continuum of where entrepreneurship takes place and when this happens. Where context has been studied in relation to gender and women, the focus has been on the influence of social contexts such as networks, family and household embeddedness of women entrepreneurs or the institutional environment for women's entrepreneurship. We contribute to the literature by identifying three further themes, based on a systematic literature review: how to conceptualise the spatial and institutional contexts for women's entrepreneurship and their intersections, as informed by entrepreneurship, gender and geography studies; the paradox of empowering women and the debate around mumpreneurship. Our analysis highlights the influence of spatial-institutional contexts on entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial behaviour is gendered because of place which itself is gendered, reflecting local institutions such as accepted gender norms which may "force" women into specific industries or business sizes. We also highlight the agency of women entrepreneurs in influencing their spatial-institutional contexts.

Entrepreneurial Activities in Europe - Sustaining Inclusive Entrepreneurship

“…For example, Welter et al (2014) refer to the experience of female African hairdressers in London. Here, migrant status, gender, location, and sector combine to create multiple disadvantages for these entrepreneurs.…”

Introduction

“…Third, with this volume we contribute a gender perspective to the recent debate around the contextualization of entrepreneurship (Welter, 2011;Welter and Gartner, 2016a;Zahra and Wright, 2011;Zahra et al, 2014). Recent theoretical work in women's entrepreneurship provides compelling arguments as to why we need to more carefully consider the institutional, cultural, social and spatial contexts within which entrepreneurs enact and grow their ventures (Welter et al, 2014). Contexts for entrepreneurship are more than just the objective business environment "out there".…”

Micro Entrepreneurship and Female Homework in Developing Countries: On the Limited Capacity of Micro Entrepreneurship as Analytical Term

“…Amoore (2002) argued that the dualistic construction of work as an employee or self-employed person is based on the western liberal assumption of autonomous and self-contained individuals, which fails to capture the complexity of women's insertion in the labor market through home-based work that is visibly tangled with their gender role obligations. Ideological constructions of proper womanhood affect the women's opportunities to seek employment or use their entrepreneurial skills to the full extent (Welter et al 2014). A trend towards outsourcing work at the household level has added a layer of invisibility to the economic contribution of homeworkers.…”

“…The context plays a vital role in shaping female entrepreneurship. For example, in patriarchal societies where traditional gender roles favor the male breadwinner model, women's business activities are often restricted to home-based survivalist enterprises (Welter et al 2014).…”