The Scientific Reproduction of Gender Inequality a Discourse Analysis of Research Texts on Women's Entrepreneurship
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The Scientific. 1-12 08-05-20 15.46 Sida 1 The Scientific Reproduction of Gender Inequality The Scientific. 1-12 08-05-20 15.46 Sida 2 The Scientific. 1-12 08-05-20 15.46 Sida 3 HELENE AHL The Scientific Reproduction of Gender Inequality A Discourse Analysis of Research Texts on Women's Entrepreneurship Liber • Copenhagen Business School Press • Abstrakt The Scientific. 1-12 08-05-20 15.46 Sida 4 The Scientific Reproduction of Gender Inequality ISBN 91-47-07424-8 (Sweden) © 2004 Liber AB ISBN 87-630-0123-3 (Rest of the world) Publishers editor: Ola Håkansson Language editor: Elisabeth Mueller Nylander Design: Fredrik Elvander Typeset: LundaText AB 1:1 Printed in Sweden by Daleke Grafiska AB, Malmö 2004 Distribution: Sweden Liber AB, Baltzarsgatan 4, 205 10 Malmö, Sweden tel +46 40-25 86 00, fax +46 40-97 05 50 http://www.liber.se Kundtjänst tel +46 8-690 93 30, fax +46 8-690 93 01 Denmark DBK Logistics, Mimersvej 4 DK-4600 Koege, Denmark phone: +45 3269 7788, fax: +45 3269 7789 www.cbspress.dk North America Copenhagen Business School Press Books International Inc. P.O. Box 605 Herndon, VA 20172-0605, USA phone: +1 703 661 1500, toll-free: +1 800 758 3756 fax: +1 703 661 1501 Rest of the World Marston Book Services, P.O. Box 269 Abingdon, Oxfordshire, OX14 4YN, UK phone: +44 (0) 1235 465500, fax: +44 (0) 1235 465555 E-mail Direct Customers: [email protected] E-mail Booksellers: [email protected] All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrival system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. The Scientific. 1-12 08-05-20 15.46 Sida 5 Contents Introduction ................................................................................... 9 1 Gender as Socially Constructed ............................................. 13 Same or different? Feminist Ideologies ................................... 13 Same or different? Different Grounds for Feminist Research 16 Socially Constructed Men and Women................................... 21 The Post-structural Perspective .............................................. 27 So what is gender, then?........................................................... 28 Knowledge Claims from a Feminist Position ......................... 31 Summary .................................................................................. 35 2 Entrepreneurship as Gendered .............................................. 37 Entrepreneurship in Economics .............................................. 37 The Entrepreneur in Management Research on Entrepreneurship ..................................................................... 45 A Feminist Deconstruction of Entrepreneurship ................... 50 Summary................................................................................... 61 3 Defining and Applying the Concept Discourse .................... 63 What is a discourse? ................................................................. 63 What is a discursive practice?................................................... 67 Applying Foucault’s Concept of Discourse.............................. 71 Summary .................................................................................. 72 4Writing and Publishing Practices .......................................... 75 The Selection of Research Texts.............................................. 75 Discursive Practices in Research Article Production .............. 76 Summary................................................................................... 81 5 Research Articles on Women Entrepreneurs: Methods and Findings............................................................. 83 Theory Bases, Methods and Samples ...................................... 83 Findings from Research on Women Entrepreneurs ............... 91 Ways of Explaining the Few Differences Found .................... 106 Summary................................................................................... 112 6How Articles Construct the Female Entrepreneur................ 113 How Researchers Argue for Studying Women Entrepreneurs 113 Conceptions of the Female Entrepreneur as Problematic ...... 123 The Male Norm ....................................................................... 126 5 The Scientific. 1-12 08-05-20 15.46 Sida 6 Innehåll Three Strategies for Explaining the Meager Results .............. 132 Summary .................................................................................. 142 7How Articles Construct Work and Family ............................. 145 The Division between Work and Family and between a Public and a Private Sphere of Life....................................... 145 Assumptions about the Individual and the Individual in the Social World ...................................................................... 150 Summary................................................................................... 159 8 The Scientific Reproduction of Gender Inequality .............. 161 The Discourse in the Analyzed Research Texts ...................... 161 What does the discourse exclude? ........................................... 170 How does the discourse position women? .............................. 173 Does someone benefit form this discourse?............................. 176 What discursive practices uphold the discourse?..................... 180 How could one research women’s entrepreneurship differently?................................................................................ 185 Opportunities and Limitations of Feminist Research ............. 189 Summary................................................................................... 192 Appendices ..................................................................................... 193 Appendix A. The Selection of Research Texts......................... 193 Appendix B. Discourse Analysis Techniques........................... 201 Appendix C. Techniques Used in this Research ...................... 210 References ...................................................................................... 219 Index .............................................................................................. 233 6 The Scientific. 1-12 08-05-20 15.46 Sida 7 Innehåll Tables and Figures Table 2.1 Words Describing Entrepreneurship and Their Opposites ......................................................... 53 Table 2.2 Words Describing Entrepreneur and Their Opposites ................................................................... 54 Table 2.3 Bem’s Scale of Masculinity and Femininity............... 56 Table 2.4 Masculinity Words Compared to Entrepreneur Words ......................................................................... 57 Table 2.5 Femininity Words Compared to Opposites of Entrepreneur Words.................................................. 58 Table 4.1 Composition of Editorial Boards .............................. 79 Table 5.1 Countries of Origin ................................................... 84 Table 5.2 Type of Study............................................................. 84 Table 5.3 Theory Base ............................................................... 85 Table 5.4 Feminist Theories ..................................................... 86 Table 5.5 Research Design ........................................................ 87 Table 5.6 Analysis Techniques................................................... 88 Table 5.7 Sample Types ............................................................. 88 Table 5.8 Samples ...................................................................... 89 Table 5.9 Use of Comparisons................................................... 90 Table 5.10 Sample Sizes............................................................... 90 Table 5.11 Response Rates .......................................................... 91 Table 6.1 Move One – Establishing a Territory........................ 121 Table 6.2 Move Two – Establishing a Niche ............................ 122 Figure 8.1 Expanding the Research on Women Entrepreneurs 185 Table A.1 Overview of Selected Articles ................................... 196 Table B.1 Text Analysis Techniques .......................................... 203 Table C.1 Reading Guide ........................................................... 211 Table C.2 Introduction Section Structure ................................. 213 Table C.3 Introduction Section Analysis: Example 1................. 214 Table C.4 Introduction Section Analysis: Example 2................. 215 Table C.5 Introduction Section Analysis: Example 3................. 216 7 The Scientific. 1-12 08-05-20 15.46 Sida 8 The Scientific. 1-12 08-05-20 15.46 Sida 9 Introduction You are not born a woman, wrote Simone deBeauvoir, you become one. It is the process of becoming a woman that is of interest in this work. Feminist scholarship has since long documented the different constructions of masculinity and femininity and the resulting subordi- nation of the feminine. But how does this happen? What are the prac- tices involved in the ubiquitous reproduction of the current gender regime? Why does this continue in spite of so many years of feminist activism, and in spite of such widely held and confessed beliefs about the equal rights of every human being? This work is about the processes whereby gender inequality is re- produced. I write about an area, where this would, I think, be least ex-