Research article: Female entrepreneurs and media

I will shortly comment on an article written by Doris Eikhof, Juliette Summers and Sara Carter in 2013. The article can be found here:  "Women doing their own thing".

When we are talking about startups and high-growth entrepreneurship we may stereotypically see a certain gender before us. With the help of the article of Eikhof & al I try to find out whether there are some typical ways of constructing a typical female entrepreneurial identity. One important factor influencing identity construction is media as a part of our culture. This is clearly addressed in the article. As you have maybe read earlier is how Kilbourne (2004:242) puts it: "Advertising performs much the same function in industrial society as myth performed in ancient and primitive societies: It is both the creator and perpetuator of the dominant attitudes, values, and ideology of culture, as well as the social norms and myths by which most people live”. I want to underline this here as advertising does play an important role in how female entrepreneurs are empowered or disempowered.

Eikhof and Summers ( 2013) have done a study where they used the UK-based women's magazine named eve to study female entrepreneur representations. One reason for using this magazine as a data source was that it was presenting something they called "women doing their own thing" every month. This theme was about women who decided to start their own business instead of continuing a corporate career. In the article the emphasis is on female media representations  but Eikhof and Summers (2013:549) also have an important contribution in their way of emphasizing entrepreneurial activity as work. This is something that I as a newcomer in this research discourse may not even understand at first. I even had to ask myself: Is their something that you do as an entrepreneur that normally isn't considered as work? Well, some answers are found in the article.

One important finding was that female entrepreneurship was represented with stories underlining typical female activity and in a typically female context (p.559). The combination of parenthood and work was an important representation in connection with female entrepreneurship. What consequences do these representations have if we want to inspire women to becoming highgrowth entrepreneurs?

Research article: Gender and entrepreneurship

I will shortly comment on an article written by Susan Marlow and Maura McAdam in 2011: Gender and entrepreneurship. Comments will be written in a non-academic way.

The main theme is about myths about female entrepreneurs and why they are seen as under-performers. Already the word under-performing makes you read more. As a matter of fact I have never thought about that. Are women entrepreneurs under-performing? Okay I have to read a little bit further in the article. Well, there are more male entrepreneurs than female ones and female entrepreneurs tend to work in sectors of limited growth (p 115). Female entrepreneurs also tend to work part time and base their businesses in their homes. Quoting the authors: "So, we know that many female-owned firms are marginal and vulnerable; few are innovative entrepreneurial enterprises with the potential to create new wealth or act as net employment generators." (p.116) But the authors argue that this under-performing is not typical for female entrepreneurs but it is a reflection of small firms as such. The horrible thing is that female entrepreneurs are labeled. What could be done to avoid this stereotyping process? Should we avoid using gender as an explaining variable? One important thing according to Marlow & McAdam is  to stop focusing on "female lack" when doing research on female entrepreneurs. I totally agree. Maybe we should be interested in different ways of being an entrepreneur instead and see how that contributes to society? And when I talk about contribution, it's not only about economic value but also the value of empowerment. Feeling comfortable with your small company may contribute more to the well-being in our society.