Reshaping gendered norms in entrepreneurship: incorporating gender identity and entrepreneurial practice

Abstract

This paper presents a practice theoretical conception of gender in entrepreneurship, emphasizing the potential of reflexivity and collective agency to reshape gendered norms. While the literature recognises the fluidity of gender and its intersectional nature, it often overlooks how social phenomena are produced and relate to each other. The main aim of this is to show, not just how, gendered norms of entrepreneurial practice inhibit practice (which has been, extensively covered) but how identity and the individualised practice of entrepreneurship, can shift gendered norms of entrepreneurial practice. Drawing upon the theories of Pierre Bourdieu and Margaret Archer, this paper proposes a more integrative approach to identity and gendered norms, embedded within a social realist approach. The author highlights the need for structural renegotiation in entrepreneurship through reflexivity. Given how norms self-naturalise, individual practice of diverse gendered practices in entrepreneurship is not enough to create long-term sustainable change and support for diverse gendered practices. Instead, this paper proposes an integrative approach to identity and gendered norms, emphasizing the potential of individuals to shift structural norms, through collective action. This study suggests that a more balanced understanding of the interplay between context and identity can assist in the design of support for non-traditional gendered practices and provide new insights into how gendered norms impact entrepreneurial activity.