Doing Gender, Doing Entrepreneurship: An Ethnographic Account of Intertwined Practices

TLDR

Entrepreneurship research traditionally assumes a universal, agendered model of economic rationality. The study ethnographically examines how entrepreneurial practices construct and transgress gender identities in small Italian enterprises, and proposes a metaphor summarizing these processes. The authors conduct an ethnographic study in small Italian enterprises to describe how entrepreneurial practices position people as men and women and entrepreneurs within gender practices. The analysis shows that gender and entrepreneurship are enacted as situated practices, with gendered identities being maintained, altered, and transgressed across symbolic spaces, and identifies five key processes—managing dual presence, ceremonial and remedial work, boundary‑keeping, footing, and gender commodification—while concluding that entrepreneurship is often linked to masculinity yet alternative forms exist.

Abstract

Traditional literature and research on entrepreneurship relies on a model of economic rationality alleged to be universal and agendered. This article presents a description of the processes that position people as ‘men’ and ‘women’ within entrepreneurial practices and as ‘entrepreneurs’ within gender practices, relying on an ethnographic study carried out in small enterprises in Italy. Our analysis shows how gender and entrepreneurship are enacted as situated practices and how the codes of a gendered identity are kept, changed and transgressed by constantly sliding between different symbolic spaces. In particular we highlight five processes of the symbolic construction of gender and entrepreneurship: managing the dual presence, doing ceremonial and remedial work, boundary‐keeping, footing and gender commodification. We then propose a final metaphor which conveys a summary image of these processes. In concluding, we link our analysis to the original purpose of our investigation, highlighting not only how entrepreneurship is equated with the masculine, but also how alternative and possible forms of entrepreneurship exist, in the same way as different forms of gender.