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To advance debates concerned with gender inequality in contemporary organisations, this seminar series argues for a shift in how we theorise and understand the persistence and experience of ongoing discrimination. Specifically, the series calls for a move away from explanations based on an assumption of exclusion (underpinned materially and symbolically by a masculine norm) towards a focus on critically scrutinising the way in which women and men are included in organisations today.
Seminar 5 will explore the extent and depth of women’s inclusion in the field of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship has been presented as the “solution” to a range of “women’s work issues” - need to secure a flexible work-life balance, want to escape from the gendered culture of large organisations, prefer to lead in a way which feels authentic to you – then set up your own business. Additionally, women are valorised as a source of untapped entrepreneurial potential with men being twice as likely to start their own business - 10.4 per cent of men compared to 5.5 per cent of women in the UK. Much policy attention has been directed at the “problem” of women’s under representation in the ranks of entrepreneurs with a notable focus on the “fixing” of women who are seen as lacking confidence, more risk averse and likely to have an under-performing business. This seminar will consider the experience of entrepreneurship for women business owners through a critical exploration of the conditions of their inclusion in this economic activity. Moving away from a focus on the individual female entrepreneur, attention will be directed at the persistence of cultural and systemic biases which women are subject to when engaging in entrepreneurship.
