EXPERT PANEL: The state of gender equality in entrepreneurship

Women and men do not run businesses to the same extent and the gender distribution differs greatly in different sectors. Women are discriminated against when it comes to financing, and investments in rural areas favor sectors where men’s entrepreneurship dominates. So how far have we really come with gender equality in entrepreneurship? We talk to two professors and an associate professor.

Jeaneth Johansson, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Luleå University of Technology, and Professor at the Academy of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Sustainability, Halmstad University

How far have we come with gender equality in entrepreneurship?

– Great progress has been made over the years. Women entrepreneurs are much more visible today than they were 10-15 years ago, and ‘real’ entrepreneurs can also be women, there is nothing strange about that. More and more women are creating innovations that are being promoted and gender equality projects to support women’s entrepreneurship are increasing. But when it comes to the day-to-day business, it is easy for funders, support systems and entrepreneurs to act according to existing norms and values. It is still the case that only one percent of all venture capital goes to women’s entrepreneurship. And crisis support for entrepreneurs during the pandemic was far from equal, which obviously affected their chances of survival.

What needs to be done to make entrepreneurship more gender equal?

– It is important that we think about inclusion and integration rather than focusing on ‘helping’ and ‘supporting’ women. It’s about working together to harness the resources that exist to promote entrepreneurship. And this can happen if we work on gender equality issues in an integrated way at the societal, organizational and individual levels – not isolated in silos as is often the case today. Which companies should we invest in? Which companies should be included in an incubator? Who is in this boardroom? Who is invited to the meeting? Who gets money and who doesn’t? Working on gender equality issues doesn’t always have to be such a big undertaking. The smaller contexts of organizations and funders are important.

– We must not be gender blind, gender is an important factor in gender equality work. At the same time, focusing too much on gender can be problematic.

Katarina Pettersson, Associate Professor in Human Geography, Researcher and Program Director at the Department of Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

How far have we come with gender equality in entrepreneurship?

– Not very far at all. When we talk about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, we think of men, and if we mean women, we have to say women entrepreneurs or women’s entrepreneurship. The masculinity of the concept has been reinforced by an increasingly individualized society, where the focus is on making a lot of money. Norms and ideals in society have a lot to do with it. Those of us who are not super young need to understand the ideals that young women and men live with today, and really listen to them in order to make a difference.

– The agricultural sector is dominated by men and is not gender equal at all. Around 15% of agricultural businesses are owned by women. Women are often invisible, despite contributing both innovation and work on the farm.

– Women and men in agriculture perform very different tasks, for example the tractor is a strong symbol of masculinity. Support from rural policy goes mainly to men in agriculture. But it is important to recognize that women do other things in rural areas. They run businesses in all sorts of sectors – from forestry and farming, to working as hairdressers and running accountancy and service businesses. Women provide the services, shops and meeting places that are created because women run businesses. And this is unfortunately not where the support goes.

What needs to be done to make entrepreneurship more gender equal?

– We need to understand that gender matters in all possible contexts in society. Policies on women’s entrepreneurship cannot be gender blind, they must be designed with women’s perspectives. Gender equality must be integrated into all policies, not least in rural policy where gender equality really needs to be increased.

– I am part of a newly launched EU project, GRASS Ceiling, where we will study the conditions and obstacles for women in rural areas to work with business development and innovations. Our results will become part of the policy system, which feels hopeful.

Karin Berglund, Professor of Business Administration and Entrepreneurship, Stockholm University

How far have we come with gender equality in entrepreneurship?

– One step forward and two steps back. Looking at the statistics on women’s and men’s entrepreneurship, we might think we are on the road to gender equality. But the entrepreneurial ideals are still male. Over the past 20 years, the view of women’s entrepreneurship has shifted – from collective power to individual effort. In the early 1990s, policy makers saw women’s entrepreneurship as a path to a more equal society. Then, neoliberalism swept the country, and investments in women’s businesses were made more for economic growth. Today, all responsibility falls on the shoulders of the individual, and it is the entrepreneurial ideal that has driven it.

– Entrepreneurship must be seen from a broader perspective. It is not just about a figure on a stage with a strong narrative. It’s not the person who created it all – there are many people around the entrepreneur who are invisible, such as partners who make entrepreneurship possible. But it is also about seeing all the initiatives taken by women in healthcare and civil society in times of crisis, such as the pandemic and war. They often take on extremely entrepreneurial tasks to save lives and solve complex problems. By looking beyond the numbers of women and men starting businesses, we get a broader perspective on entrepreneurship.

What needs to be done to make entrepreneurship more gender equal?

– We need to return to entrepreneurship as something more collective and collegial. And to acquire a different language and different ideas about what entrepreneurship is. It is how we set the conditions for entrepreneurship in society that allows more constructive entrepreneurship to emerge.

READING TIPS ON THE THEME

Ahl, H., Tillmar, M, Berglund, H. & Pettersson, K. (2023). Entrepreneurship as a losing proposition for women: gendered outcomes of neo-liberal entrepreneurship policy in a Nordic welfare state. In Henry, C., Coleman, S., Lewis, K. (Eds.) Women’s Entrepreneurship Policy: A global perspective Edward Elgar (pp 75-102).

Berglund, K., Ahl, H., Pettersson, K., & Tillmar, M. (2022). Conceptualizing feminist resistance in the postfeminist terrain. Gender in Management: An International Journal, (ahead-of-print).

Berglund, K. & Wettermark, A. (2021) A silenced entrepreneurship

From, M., Johansson, J., Johansson, K., & Jonasson Tolv, J. (2022). Richer crisis support: Sustainability becomes a non-issue when integration takes place in silos (RIKARE Krisstöd project, FORMAS)

Malmström, M., Johansson, J., & Wincent, J. (2017). Gender stereotypes and venture support decisions: How governmental venture capitalists socially construct entrepreneurs’ potential Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 41(5).

Johansson, J., Lindberg, M., Wennberg, P., Udén, M., Sandström, J., & Wikberg-Nilsson, Å. (2020). Richer business models: For inclusive value creation in companies and organizations.
Digital tool: Richer business models – digital tool for equal and inclusive business models – https://richerbusiness.eu/. The tool is linked to the report Towards Inclusive Value Creation in Businesses and Organizations.

Pettersson, K. & Tillmar, M., Working from the Heart (2022) – Cultivating Feminist Care Ethics through Care Farming in Sweden, Gender, Place and Culture.

Pettersson, K. & Arora-Jonsson, S. (for the Swedish Farmers’ Union’s Gender Equality Academy), (2009), The invisible entrepreneur – Gender and entrepreneurship in the green industries.

Pettersson, K. (2022) Gender perspective – A key to visualizing and understanding entrepreneurship in rural areas, pp. 85-98, in Gaddefors & Jonsson (eds.), Keys for a Living Countryside, The Keys for a Living Countryside Project, Ultuna: SLU.