The Female MSME Practitioners and Digitalization from a Feminist Perspective

Abstract

This study is about women SMEs' meaning and use of digital technology. The feminist intersectional approach is used to answer how gender, religion, social class, daily activities, and place of residence shape the characteristics of women SMEs. How do they interpret the business they are running, and what is the urgency of digitization in running their business? Respondents were female SME practitioners from Kangean and Paciran sub-districts selected using snowball sampling. Data analysis was carried out interpretively using a feminist standpoint by including the researcher's knowledge as a reference. The feminist intersectional approach helps identify women SMEs' religiosity and life orientation in the two regions in running their businesses. Furthermore, unlike other studies that find digitalization a necessity in business, this study finds that digitalization is not urgent for their lives. Religiosity and life orientation that are formed from the intersection of many factors around them make SME women do gender. They accept and even believe that developing an SME business is not the main thing in their life. Even digital technology needs to be avoided because it has a negative impact.