When Gender Matters: Entrepreneurship and Gender Equality

When gender matters: why entrepreneurship can be a tool for women in achieving gender equality?

Everywhere in the world, on diverse issues, women are concerned about personal growth and their own development. Don’t you think so? I do. In fact my deep interest in women empowerment has lead me to undertake a PhD on women’s entrepreneurship and those of Indigenous women in particular. Why this?

I always had in me this tremendous curiosity that would push me to think outside the box and discover the diversities of others cultures and the meaning of social codes and behaviour that belong to them. This particular quality called "critical capacity" brought me at very young age to question about the female roles models I was familiar and that society suggests us to adopt.

While go beyond of what it seems to be apparent to me related to the fact to be an Italian woman and what expectation this can have for male counterparts, what I found particularly exciting was to “travel” towards other cultures far from those I was familiar with and see how gender roles models are constructed and what implications this can have for women in the world.

Unconventional by nature, when I was a student in sociology, I have chosen a very unconventional research topic for a young Italian lady, which was related to the understanding of female genital mutilation – termed as FGM- practised on Somali women. I was absolutely interested in understanding why Somali women do such practises and what does these practices mean to them. In other words, what are the tacit rules - the social agreement -between men and women around this practise?

Meeting with African Somali immigrant women has incredibly nourished my path not only as a researcher but also as a woman; somehow the empathy in conversation is natural in that space where there is not judgement, no race, no ethnicity no cultural barriers, just communication. When I was working with these women I also realised how strong it can be the impact of cultures in the determination of the gender role models and how this is can be influenced by the male domination.

FGM is really a good example because it represents the expression of male control on women bodies and also how this has been collectively adopted. In fact, while some major rules regarding gender orientation have been and still are influenced by masculinity - the link between women’s behaviour and social expectation is so strong- that I realised how Somali women are conditioned by social male perceptions and this social acceptance make the eradication of the practises very difficult.

It is widely known how and why these practises are done, and what repercussions this can have on women - the physical and psychological levels – what is less known is how these practises can be eradicated. The question of mentality change is therefore crucial and what has begun to appear to my mind - How women can change their lives and particularly those women that have low economic status and consequentially less power in the decision making process?

Economic independence reflects in decision independence of women– and while education for women is really very good- as it is for everybody- what can make a difference is when women are in action. This is the raison why I have come to the idea of a research topic that could intersect entrepreneurship, women and development and explore how entrepreneurship can change the lives of women and particularly for those women striving for development and that fall outside the employable conventional markets.

Actually entrepreneurship comes from Latin and means ..... "inter prehendere" which means “take with hands.” Interestingly, this idea of action is behind the concept of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship can be a very important tool for achieving gender equality for women; in fact, successful entrepreneurship means awareness of own capacities, building self –confidence, improving decision capacity and contributing to the personal wellbeing.

In the clary imaginary entrepreneurship is still too perceived as something related to the main economic models; when adapted, entrepreneurship can be for women a powerful tool for self- affirmation and social emancipation. A diversity of women in the world experience gender equality challenges at tacit and explicit levels; women are concerned about their own development in a way or in another and my belief is that entrepreneurship is a way “to follow your path, and lead your way”.

Thank you GirlPowerEffect for the invitation.

Editor’s Note: Francesca Croce is Italian, Sociologist, Change Management Consultant and PhD candidate at the Faculty of Business Administration at Laval University. Its PhD project focuses on Indigenous Women Entrepreneurship. You can follow her on Twitter @FrancescaCroce9 and contact her at https://www.francescacroce.com/