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Challenging the entrepreneurial discourse around women home-based workers’ empowerment

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  • Afreen Huq
  • Annie Delaney
  • Ben Debney

Abstract

This article explores dominant entrepreneurship discourse and practice surrounding informal women home-based workers, and their relationship to goals of individual empowerment. We argue that conventional neoliberal entrepreneurship discourse conflates empowerment and performativity, linking the capacity of women to develop greater agency with their incorporation into an economic regime with predetermined roles, labelled ‘empowerment’. Applying a critical lens, we analyse the development discourse on entrepreneurship and economic performativity in these terms – looking to understand the characteristics of empowerment concerning home-based workers in Bangladesh working for a fair-trade organisation and a domestic garment supply chain. We argue that the conflation of empowerment and performativity serves the convenience of neoliberal ideology rather than the empowerment needs of those to whom such discourses are applied. To complement our critique, based on the empowerment literature, we develop a conceptual framework of empowerment and agency encompassing individual and collective agency, considering these in light of the relationship between performativity and social reproduction. Coupling a more nuanced understanding of empowerment to the critique of the entrepreneurial discourse, as applied to women home-based workers, provides a theoretical contribution to the empowerment and entrepreneurial discourse literature. JEL Codes: D63, J16, J4

Suggested Citation

  • Afreen Huq & Annie Delaney & Ben Debney, 2022. "Challenging the entrepreneurial discourse around women home-based workers’ empowerment," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 33(2), pages 308-328, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:33:y:2022:i:2:p:308-328
    DOI: 10.1177/10353046211072539
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sarah Gammage & Naila Kabeer & Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, 2016. "Voice and Agency: Where Are We Now?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 1-29, January.
    2. Webb, Justin W. & Bruton, Garry D. & Tihanyi, Laszlo & Ireland, R. Duane, 2013. "Research on entrepreneurship in the informal economy: Framing a research agenda," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 598-614.
    3. Deepa Narayan, 2002. "Empowerment and Poverty Reduction : A Sourcebook," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15239, December.
    4. Harvey, David, 2007. "A Brief History of Neoliberalism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199283279, Decembrie.
    5. Deepa Narayan, 2005. "Measuring Empowerment : Cross Disciplinary Perspectives," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7441, December.
    6. Naila Kabeer, 1999. "Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women's Empowerment," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 435-464, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Entrepreneurial discourse; economic performativity; gendered entrepreneurial subject; home-based work; empowerment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J4 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets

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