TY - JOUR AB - Purpose This paper aims to examine the experience of women entrepreneurs and the challenges and issues they face in reconciling the work activities of the family sphere with those of the entrepreneurial sphere.Design/methodology/approach This study is based on a materialist feminist perspective and a theory of living work that take into account the visible and invisible dimensions of the real work performed by women entrepreneurs. The methodology is based on a qualitative research design involving individual and group interviews conducted with 70 women entrepreneurs.Findings The results show the various individual and collective strategies deployed by women entrepreneurs to reconcile the work activities of the family and entrepreneurial spheres.Originality/value One of the major findings emerging from the results of this study relates to the re-appropriation of the world of work and organization of work by women entrepreneurs and its emancipatory potential for the division of labour. Through the authority and autonomy they possessed as business owners, and with their employees’ cooperation, they integrated and internalized tasks related to the work activities of the family sphere into the organization of work itself. Thus, not only new forms of work organization and cooperation at work but also new ways of conceiving of entrepreneurship as serving women’s life choices and emancipation could be seen to be emerging. VL - 10 IS - 3 SN - 1756-6266 DO - 10.1108/IJGE-09-2017-0058 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/IJGE-09-2017-0058 AU - St-Arnaud Louise AU - Giguère Émilie PY - 2018 Y1 - 2018/01/01 TI - Women entrepreneurs, individual and collective work–family interface strategies and emancipation T2 - International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 198 EP - 223 Y2 - 2024/04/20 ER -