Three essays exploring the experience of female entrepreneurs who are mothers.

Abstract

This thesis is focused on the experiences of female entrepreneurs who are mothers, aiming to explore how the context within which they are embedded shapes the complexities they face. It comprises three studies that draw upon Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital, the Eudemonic conceptualisation of wellbeing and critical appraisals of postfeminist ideology, to contribute to the current drive to broaden our understanding of what constitutes an entrepreneur and entrepreneurship (Dean et al, 2019; Welter et al, 2016; Marlow and McAdam, 2014). The overarching aim of the three studies is to capture alternative discourses, outside the mainstream economic metanarrative, so as to shed a critical light on common assumptions and demonstrate where emerging practices may not be reflected in existing theory. In this way, the thesis aims to challenge the dominant, often male, normative orthodoxies and contribute towards an expanded, more holistic and inclusive understanding of entrepreneurship.
For these purposes, twenty female entrepreneurs from diverse business sectors, who have been in operation for between four and twenty years, were selected to participate in semistructured interviews. The thesis adopts a subjectivist stance to facilitate reflection upon the unique contexts within which each female entrepreneur is embedded, and a social constructionist Table of Contents ii epistemology to capture the ways in which their realities and meanings vary according to the social forces framing their entrepreneurial environment.
The first study explores entrepreneurial trajectory by analysing how the configuration of Bourdieu’s Capitals (economic, social, cultural and symbolic) are lost, converted and accumulated across the family lifecycle. The study finds that, although motherhood does cause constraint and capital loss (as already established in previous research), it also provides opportunities to access new sources of capital, both individually and across boundaries, to leverage through the vehicle of entrepreneurship. Hence a context framed by the structures of motherhood (restrictions upon resources, location and status), does directly affect the balance of capitals which an entrepreneur requires to thrive, but the impact of these structures is complex and nuanced. The second study explores how eudemonic wellbeing outcomes are facilitated by entrepreneurial mechanisms that enable ambition whilst accommodating goal dilemma. This study finds that, despite all the challenges of venturing around family and the societal expectations of a mother’s role, entrepreneurship provides pathways to highly valued wellbeing outcomes, that are currently, largely unrecognised in the literature. Thus, contrary to their portrayal as “problematic under-performers” (Dean et el, 2019), female entrepreneurs are performing according to their own priorities, a reflection which challenges the limited economic metrics which currently assess entrepreneurial “performance”. Finally, the third study in this thesis, explores how the post-feminist entrepreneurial policy of the UK Government, shapes the environment within which female entrepreneurs who are mothers are embedded. The study finds that the underlying post-feminist orthodoxy of policy is problematic, reinforcing both traditional domestic roles and traditional sector “genders”, which impedes self-determination.
By aiming to challenge the unduly narrow, normative framework of what constitutes entrepreneurship, this thesis contributes in three ways. Firstly, motherhood has long been portrayed as a constraint, this study expands female entrepreneurship theory by finding it can also be a Table of Contents iii springboard into a new, stimulating environment that shifts perspective, transforms motivation and drives creativity, enabling the access and mobilisation of invaluable new capitals by crossing boundaries. Secondly, this thesis contributes the first female-only exploration of wellbeing to the emerging theory of entrepreneurial wellbeing. By avoiding the dominant approach comparing the male versus female experience, this study provides a long-term gendered reflection of a particular context, ensuring that nascent theory reflects varied realities. Finally, this thesis contributes to organisational theory by revealing how post feminism hinders the daily life of female work by acclaiming women’s entrepreneurial agency whilst also binding her to the home.

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ORCID for Laura Costanzo: orcid.org/0000-0002-7197-6778

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