Women's Entrepreneurship in the Innovative Regions of Russia in the Mirror of Qualitative Sociological Research

The task of developing small and medium-sized businesses in the Russian Federation involves the economic initiative of all gender groups, particularly women. In the meantime, the Russian Federation is lagging behind the developed Western countries in the world's female entrepreneurship ratings. This study is a continuation of the study of the readiness of Russian women to conduct business. In the first stage of the study (2015), the mass semi-formalized interview method found that the willingness of young women to participate in business did not lead to a real increase in the number of women entrepreneurs at that age. This led to an analysis of the experiences of women entrepreneurs in order to understand the incentives and limitations that influence real business activity. As a result, the purpose of this study is defined as the development and testing of a deeply structured interview method as a complementary mass survey of methodological tools in the study of gender issues Entrepreneurship in Russia (as exemplified by its innovative regions). The novelty of the study is determined by the fact that (1) the use of this method for interview women entrepreneurs is still few; (2) It is not enough to study the life strategies of young women entrepreneurs; (3) There is still a shortage of scientific knowledge about the development of female entrepreneurship in Russia. In-depth interviews were conducted during the month of June 2017 in such innovative regions of the Russian Federation as Tomsk and Novosibirsk Oblasts.