Conforming or Rejecting gender stereotypes among women entrepreneurs

Thesis Defence
Conforming or Rejecting gender stereotypes among women entrepreneurs

Diana GARCIA QUEVEDO, PhD candidate in the Programme doctoral, will publicly defend her thesis in Management Sciences.

3 October 2024
3:00 p.m. (CET - GMT+2)
Online

Abstract

Research indicates that women entrepreneurs face structural barriers at both personal and institutional levels, with fewer businesses owned and managed by women than men. This gender gap in entrepreneurship is often attributed to pervasive gender norms and stereotypes, which are seen to influence women's entrepreneurial intentions and actions. However, studies often overlook women entrepreneurs’ capacity to challenge or reinforce these gendered beliefs.

This research adopts a more nuanced understanding of gender, acknowledging its fluidity. The research focuses on how growth-oriented and environmental-oriented women entrepreneurs navigate gender norms and stereotypes. The findings suggest that these beliefs negatively impact women entrepreneurs; however, the gender norms and stereotypes do not remain unchallenged. The study introduces the concept of 'Green femininities,' which blends femininity and masculinity according to contexts, goals, and values. It proposes a nuanced way to study gender stereotypes, challenging their supposed stability and arguing that women entrepreneurs simultaneously reinforce and subvert these beliefs through their gender performances.

This research also proposes an innovative methodology using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Natural Language Processing (NLP) to enhance the researcher’s analytical capabilities, thus enlarging the methodological toolbox within management research.

Keywords: Women entrepreneurs, Ecopreneurs, Gender stereotypes, Qualitative methods

Jury