Enterprising futures or dead‐end jobs? Women, self employment and social exclusion

Purpose - Since the late 1980s, much attention has been afforded to the notion of social exclusion and how governments might address this problem. One such solution has been the encouragement of self employment amongst those considered to be socially excluded with the aim of creating opportunity for individuals, generating new jobs and contributing to local economic regeneration. The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the relationship between entrepreneurship and social exclusion by considering the potential for benefit dependent lone mothers to enter self employment in order to escape disadvantage. Design/methodology/approach - A theoretical paper which draws upon the concepts of gender, enterprise and social exclusion which are then linked through an analysis of the possibilities which self employment may offer benefit dependent lone mothers to undertake an economically viable activity. Findings - From the arguments explored here, it would appear that self employment is limited in terms of meeting the economic needs of these women, is unlikely to create new job opportunities or act as impetus to local regeneration and in fact, may encourage undeclared working for both the owners and employees in such enterprises. Originality/value - Draws upon a range of diverse arguments to offer an original contribution to the social policy and entrepreneurship debate.