GENDER PERSPECTIVE IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP RESEARCH

Abstract

Researching women’s experiences of business ownership has historically been met with methodological challenges (Stevenson, 1990). Biological sex was used in entrepreneurship research to explain the differences in rates of activity between male and female ventures (Gupta et al., 2009). The use of gender as a lens enables the exploration of how gender and entrepreneurship is constructed within society and the impact of such on rates and types of entrepreneurial activity (Gupta et al., 2009). So, the question is no longer focused on whether gender impacts business ownership but how (Ahl & Marlow, 2012). Analyzing feminist research methodologies it is important to consider poststructuralist feminist theory. According to Ahl (2002) poststructuralist feminist research avoid essentialism and polarizing men and women and sees gender including the body as a socially constructed phenomenon that is culturally historically and locally specific. Gender is used as an analytical category, but instead of taking it for granted, using qualitative methods one can look at how it is constructed. Instead of looking at physical men and women and using their sex as an explanatory variable, one may look at how gender is accomplished in different  contexts.