Women Entrepreneurs' Strategies for Gender Equality; Colombian Women's Voices through Feminist Theoretical Lens

Background and Purpose: Research shows that women's entrepreneurship has potential to contribute towards two of the UN Millennium Development Goals: the eradication of poverty and the promotion of gender equality. However, little is known about how women entrepreneurs in developing countries affect gender equality while pursuing their businesses. Moreover, studies in the field typically lack from a feminist theoretic approach that can help explain the complex changes in gender dynamics catalyzed by women entrepreneurs.

Drawing upon a feminist theoretic lens, the present study explores how gender inequality affects women entrepreneurs and the strategies they utilize to produce change in gender towards greater equality. It uses qualitative data resulting from focus groups with women entrepreneurs in Colombia.  

Methods:  Data were collected through two focus groups conducted in Colombia with nineteen women entrepreneurs. These were part of a large study commissioned by Oxfam in 2012. Women were recruited through convenience-sampling techniques. Participants came from different regions; the majority from rural areas (63%). Some reported being indigenous. About half of the women were in their forties, eighteen had attended high school. Seventy percent of the businesses operated by the women were located in the informal economy, and consisted mainly of offering processed food for local markets or in small-scale agricultural activities (74%).

Data were transcribed verbatim and coded thematically using Nvivo qualitative software. Data analysis was iteratively inductive and deductive (Emerson, Fretz and Shaw, 1995); the inductive approach focused on line by line open coding to identify emerging themes; the deductive approach utilized the doing and undoing gender theoretical framework (West & Zimmerman, 1987, Deutsch, 2007 and Butler, 1998, 2004) to assess and organize emerging themes.

Findings:The study found that women entrepreneurs were constrained by local gender ideologies, which manifested in the form of structural barriers to accessing positions and resources, discriminatory interactions and the internalization of limiting gender scripts. We also learned that women entrepreneurs contested the observed barriers through different strategies. For example, interactions were identified as important spaces of contestation in which women protested against inequality, negotiated support, demonstrated business capabilities and performed new possibilities. Women recreated and communicated new gender identities, which combined new roles for women with their traditional roles and traits related to motherhood. The women also reported that entrepreneurship brought mostly positive changes towards greater gender equality, however, it also brought negative ones resulting from challenging the gender order. 

Conclusion and Implications: Findings highlight first, the importance of observing how gender inequality can be present at different levels: structural, interactional and personal identity. Global practitioners aiming to support women entrepreneurs advancing gender equality should consider designing strategies that address the levels identified coordinately. Second, by describing local women’s strategies, findings also illustrate the different ways inequality can be contested while respecting global women’s situated knowledge, agency and preferences. Finally, findings show the potential of women’s entrepreneurship as an avenue for positive change, while drawing attention to possible risks.