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Changing Places Through Women's Entrepreneurship

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  • Susan Hanson

Abstract

In this article, I focus on entrepreneurship as a gendered geographic process to examine how changes in people and place are linked. Although entrepreneurship is a process that is marked by deep stereotypical gender divisions, it is also one through which people can change the meaning of gender and the way in which gender is lived. In addition, entrepreneurship links people and place in a number of ways, most notably through networks of social relations in place. I discuss four geographic studies of women's entrepreneurship, each undertaken in a different country—Botswana, India, Peru, and the United States. These studies demonstrate that whereas entrepreneurship per se or access to microcredit alone is seldom sufficient to change the position of women or gender relations in a place, women are using entrepreneurship to change their lives and those of others and, in the process, are changing the places where they live. Key to this transformative process are programs of governmental and nongovernmental organizations and women's grassroots actions that are aimed at building women's skills, confidence, and business networks.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan Hanson, 2009. "Changing Places Through Women's Entrepreneurship," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 85(3), pages 245-267, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecgeog:v:85:y:2009:i:3:p:245-267
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1944-8287.2009.01033.x
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    2. Maura McAdam & Caren Crowley & Richard T. Harrison, 2020. "Digital girl: cyberfeminism and the emancipatory potential of digital entrepreneurship in emerging economies," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 349-362, August.
    3. Antoaneta Tileva, 2022. "Anything but micro—no small change: Informality practices at a nonprofit microlender in Washington, DC," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), pages 72-83, January.
    4. Darja Reuschke & Maarten van Ham, 2013. "Testing the ‘Residential Rootedness’ Hypothesis of Self-Employment for Germany and the UK," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(5), pages 1219-1239, May.
    5. Berger, Elisabeth S.C. & Kuckertz, Andreas, 2016. "Female entrepreneurship in startup ecosystems worldwide," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 5163-5168.
    6. Stam, Erik & Welter, Friederike, 2020. "Geographical contexts of entrepreneurship: Spaces, places and entrepreneurial agency," Working Papers 04/20, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.
    7. Xiaobo Su & Zhigang Chen, 2017. "Embeddedness and migrant tourism entrepreneurs: A Polanyian perspective," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(3), pages 652-669, March.
    8. Syed Aamir Alam Rizvi & Syed Jamal Shah & Muhammad Azeem Qureshi & Saima Wasim & Abdur Rahman Aleemi & Mohsin Ali, 2023. "Challenges and motivations for women entrepreneurs in the service sector of Pakistan," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Ritchie, Holly A., 2016. "Unwrapping Institutional Change in Fragile Settings: Women Entrepreneurs Driving Institutional Pathways in Afghanistan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 39-53.
    10. Qingfang Wang, 2010. "Immigration and Ethnic Entrepreneurship: A Comparative Study in the United States," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 430-458, September.
    11. Deepika Dixit & Anubha Shekhar Sinha, 2020. "How Institutions Influence Women Entrepreneurship?," Working papers 351, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.
    12. Candida Brush & Linda F. Edelman & Tatiana Manolova & Friederike Welter, 2019. "A gendered look at entrepreneurship ecosystems," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 393-408, August.
    13. Mona Hedfeldt & Gun Hedlund, 2011. "Networking in gendered regional development," ERSA conference papers ersa10p1064, European Regional Science Association.

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