Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15378/1848-9540.2019.42.02
Caring Entrepreneurship in Women's Work Practices. From the Reproduction to Destruction of Patriarchy
Orlanda Obad
orcid.org/0000-0003-4383-4913
; Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb, Croatia
Tea Škokić
orcid.org/0000-0002-4013-7875
; Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
In this article the authors examine gender-based obstacles to successful female entrepreneurs' business practices, especially regarding work-life balance, gendered divisions of domestic labour within the wider problem of social reproduction in patriarchal societies, and business leadership. The authors have applied a qualitative methodology characteristic of ethnographic research. They analyse material from 24 semi-structured interviews with women entrepreneurs. The article's theoretical perspective draws on the feminist critique of gender and discourse analysis, and the research was conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia. The key findings demonstrate that policies and measures intended for the better inclusion of women in the world of entrepreneurship do not suffice unless they are embedded within a wider framework of the critique of patriarchy, as well as within a critique of the dominant concept of entrepreneurship, through gender-conscious intersectoral policies. This research's originality lies in its focus on informal practices, which women perform in both their formal and informal businesses, and which have the potential to become an equally valid model of entrepreneurial behaviour.
Keywords
women entrepreneurs; social reproduction; work-life balance; leadership; informal practices
Hrčak ID:
230756
URI
Publication date:
21.12.2019.
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