The everyday female entrepreneur and the pursuit of emancipation

Abstract

Purpose

This study takes an “entrepreneurship as emancipation” perspective to study entrepreneurs defined as “others” on multiple categories: women entrepreneurs whose ventures are necessity-based, bootstrapped and located in economically impoverished areas (neighborhoods) in two Latin-American countries: Chile and Peru.

Design/methodology/approach

The study takes an interpretivist research approach and analyses inductively interviews with women entrepreneurs.

Findings

The findings reveal how everyday practices in pursuit of emancipation – while conducted within the existing patriarchal social structure – push the boundaries and contribute to changes in the social system via a variety of outcomes such as intergenerational social mobility, personal fulfilment and strengthening the communities in which the women entrepreneurs operate. Furthermore, while the authors find that in the particular Latin-American context under study, entrepreneuring activities become an emancipatory possibility for the everyday women entrepreneurs, they also highlight a “dark side” of their emancipatory projects.

Originality/value

The study contributes to recent critical studies in entrepreneurship by demonstrating the diversity and importance of the “mundane” activities undertaken by “necessity-based” entrepreneurs, and the significant – yet underappreciated – reach of their ventures’ impact on issues well beyond economic considerations.

Citation

Pergelova, A. and Mandakovic, V. (2024), "The everyday female entrepreneur and the pursuit of emancipation", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 30 No. 10, pp. 2731-2755. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-12-2023-1293