Women's entrepreneurial resistance to the COVID-19 pandemic inside handloom family enterprises: a case study of West Bengal, India

IF 3.1 Q2 BUSINESS
Sayana Basu
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Purpose In light of the COVID-19 pandemic's economic effects, this paper focuses on how home-based women artisans running their family businesses plan their operations to function in the “new normal” environment. The paper emphasises the adaptability and reorientation of business strategies displayed by women entrepreneurs in response to the changing work environment. The paper argues that the women's sense of agency after years of running the family business enables them to bargain and offer passive resistance to the family's power, with the latter aiming to curtail their entrepreneurial gains as the men return to their homes after losing their jobs with the onset of the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach The research draws from a qualitative study that was conducted employing field surveys and in-depth interviews with the women entrepreneurs in four important handloom clusters in Nadia, West Bengal (India) in 2022. The empirical evidence is gathered from five months of extensive ethnographic study with 66 home-based women entrepreneurs belonging to 26 handloom family enterprises. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews and the following narrative analysis have been used to comprehend the complex and dynamic conception of female entrepreneurship and women's agency to pivot business strategies during the economic turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings As a result of the abrupt suspension of the textile industry and the partial or total closure of the traditional and contemporary markets due to the COVID-19 pandemic, women from family handloom enterprises are taking steps to strengthen their entrepreneurial resistance. Although women entrepreneurs had spent years running the family business in the absence of their husbands, the pandemic exacerbated the deep-seated gender disparities within the family when social norms threatened to undo the hard-won progress made by them. However, their sense of agency enables them to plan well and resist the patriarchal onslaught with a variety of potentials, utilising tools of active and/or passive resistance within an environment of concrete limits and oppressions. Originality/value The paper contributes to the literature on women's entrepreneurial capacity by focusing on how the COVID-19 crisis and changing market demands enable gendered reactions in family enterprises. While men, back home after losing their jobs, choose to strengthen their individual identities and power positions by trying to retain control over the family business, women contribute to collective actions for enhancing the resilience of the community by pivoting their business strategies and implementing new ideas to suit new market conditions. Women thus play a central role in fostering social cohesion, helping build and maintain relationships, promoting empathy, and creating a sense of belonging, which strengthen community bonds and cooperation. The paper shows how women's entrepreneurial resilience and responsibility provide an important basis for organizing sustainable collective action for the survival of the artisanal community during crisis situations.
手织机家族企业中女性企业家对COVID-19大流行的抵抗:以印度西孟加拉邦为例
鉴于2019冠状病毒病(COVID-19)大流行对经济的影响,本文重点关注经营家族企业的家庭女工匠如何在“新常态”环境下规划其运营。本文强调了女企业家为应对不断变化的工作环境而表现出的商业战略的适应性和重新定位。该论文认为,在经营家族企业多年后,女性的能动性使她们能够讨价还价,并对家族权力进行被动抵抗,后者的目的是在男性因疫情爆发而失业后返回家中时减少她们的创业收益。该研究来自于一项定性研究,该研究于2022年对印度西孟加拉邦纳迪亚四个重要手织机集群的女企业家进行了实地调查和深入访谈。经验证据是通过对26个手摇织机家族企业的66名居家女企业家进行为期5个月的广泛民族志研究收集的。本文采用半结构化、深度访谈和以下叙事分析来理解女性创业和女性代理机构在2019冠状病毒病大流行经济动荡期间的复杂和动态概念,以调整商业战略。由于2019冠状病毒病大流行导致纺织业突然停工,传统和现代市场部分或全部关闭,家族手织机企业的妇女正在采取措施加强她们的创业抵抗力。尽管女企业家多年来一直在丈夫不在的情况下经营家族企业,但这种流行病加剧了家庭内部根深蒂固的性别差距,因为社会规范有可能使她们来之不易的进步付之东流。然而,她们的能动性使她们能够在具体的限制和压迫环境中,利用主动和/或被动抵抗的工具,很好地规划和抵抗男权的冲击,并发挥各种潜力。本文通过关注2019冠状病毒病危机和不断变化的市场需求如何促成家族企业中的性别反应,为有关女性创业能力的文献做出了贡献。男性在失业后回到家中,选择通过试图保留对家族企业的控制来加强他们的个人身份和权力地位,而女性则通过调整自己的商业战略和实施新的想法来适应新的市场条件,为增强社区的复原力做出了集体行动。因此,妇女在促进社会凝聚力、帮助建立和维持关系、促进同情和创造归属感方面发挥核心作用,从而加强社区联系和合作。本文展示了妇女的创业韧性和责任如何为危机情况下手工社区的生存组织可持续集体行动提供了重要基础。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
7.40
自引率
15.60%
发文量
15
期刊介绍: Launched in 2009, the International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship (IJGE) aims to facilitate the natural evolution of the field of gender and entrepreneurship by drawing together the very best research contributions from around the world. The journal seeks to: -Provide a dedicated publication outlet for high calibre, international research of interest to scholars, entrepreneurs and policy makers in the field of gender and entrepreneurship -Offer a unique perspective on the practice of gender and entrepreneurship by including sections dedicated to practitioner and policy content -Support a more consistent global approach to the presentation of research in the field -Platform the work of dynamic young researchers and those who are in a position to offer new perspectives on this particular research area -Enable those active in the area as researchers, educators, trainers, practitioners, support personnel and policy makers to keep up to date with the field on an international level. The coverage of the journal includes, but is not limited to: Entrepreneurship, Female/Women’s entrepreneurship , Business, Management, Strategy, Gender, Economics, Internationalization, Marketing.
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