The goal of this special issue is to go beyond the now mainstream (formerly revolutionary) focus on women “as” gender studies in entrepreneurship; to open up this type of analysis to varied women and their gendered experiences as well as to other populations sidelined by the predominance of white, Western, Christian and heterosexual male schemas that have dominated our understanding of the entrepreneurial process.
In the creation of a feminist view of entrepreneurship research conducted pre-2000, the realization was made that gender was interpreted as a comparison of men and women as entrepreneurs developing and managing their businesses. This structuring was limited, and it created a bias that increasingly related the results of women-led businesses to the practices and standards of men so as to inevitably find women performing poorly in comparison. With other scholars we argued that this view of women’s entrepreneurship as a deficit must be abandoned in favour of a resolutely feminist approach that calls for more exposition, more nuance, and more cultural range to support and appreciate the entrepreneurial efforts of people in gendered, global contexts.
The needs and accomplishments of entrepreneurs vary widely according to the different systems of belonging that characterize them at the time of setting up and carrying on the structure. To this end, we believe that intersectionality and a multi-faceted view of gender facilitate a better understanding of the specific needs and paths of each sub-group according to their identity situation and the political and social environments in which they evolve…