Shaping entrepreneurial gender play: Intersubjectivity and performativity among female entrepreneurs

Abstract

This paper aims to enrich both the Entrepreneurship as Practice (EAP) and female entrepreneurship literature by advancing the existing insight that gender and entrepreneurship are interconnected practices. It contends that the enactment of entrepreneurship and gender is contextually contingent. To this end, we reinitiate the discourse on situational definition within the EAP framework, employing Butler's performativity and intersubjectivity concepts. We posit that the interplay of gender and entrepreneurial endeavors yields distinct practices influenced by the individual's identity and social affiliation within intersubjective and performative processes. A participatory ethnographic study spanning three years, conducted within a women-centric technology incubator, exposes the incubation process as a hub of interactions facilitated by intersubjectivity. It functions both as an educational medium for "praxis" and as a catalyst driving progressive performativity, distinctively expressed by each female entrepreneur contingent upon their individual attributes. This research enriches the EAP literature by revealing divergent gender enactments across industries and individuals. Furthermore, it augments female entrepreneurship literature by enhancing our understanding of how women, irrespective of contextual variables, effectively cultivate micro ventures through practical engagement.