GENDER LENSES IDENTIFY DIFFERENT WAVES AND WAYS OF UNDERSTANDING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Abstract

This article suggests that perhaps adopting gender lenses to study the interplay between gender theories and women entrepreneurship research might advance our understanding of women entrepreneurship and small business ownership. This interplay reveals three different waves in women entrepreneurship research: men-specific, stereotyping, and postmodern. To investigate this empirically, the article adopts the Finnish context and looks at how women experience being an entrepreneur and/or small business owner by employing the method of phenomenography. Finland as a country officially sets great store by equality, but at the same time still evinces a great deal of segregation. This paradox offers a fruitful ground for this study. The results provide new categories to women entrepreneurship and thus expand the third wave of research. These results indicate that we are far from understanding the dynamics between being a woman entrepreneur and the gendered structures and practices. Thus, further research is needed to deeper understand these dynamics.

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