Universiteit van Amsterdam and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam MSc in Entrepreneurship Master Thesis Sensemaking of female entrepreneurial role models in technology field Author: João Dutra da Silva Oliveira UvA Student Number: 11373717 VU Student Number: 2607899 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Karen Verduijn Application date: July 1st 2017 Submission date: July 1st 2017 The copyright rests with the author. The author is solely responsible for the content of the thesis, including mistakes. The university cannot be held liable for the content of the author’s thesis. 1 ABSTRACT Despite advances within a wide range of professional roles, women remain a minority in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees and occupations. In the entrepreneurship field, this gender gap limits the number of technologic-based startups founded by women. An often-cited cause for the perpetuation of this gender gap is the absence of female role models, that can inspire new generations of women. To understand the stories told by female entrepreneurial role models, it was adopted a narrative analysis of blog posts, to explore the sensemaking process of those successful female entrepreneurs in a male-dominated field. It was found that female entrepreneurial role models make use of fours dimensions of the organizing process to make sense of their journeys: embracing multiple identities empower entrepreneuring processes of female entrepreneurial role models; communal motivation is a source of value through multiple inclusions of female entrepreneurial role models; female entrepreneurial role models embed themselves in supportive networks to intensify the reduction of equivocality in entrepreneuring process; and female entrepreneurial role models overcompensate to state the need of environments with diversity of actors. Those four insights were transformed into propositions to be deeply explored in future research. This study brings theoretical contributions in methodological terms and the adoption of the entrepreneuring approach to role modelling and practical implications to organizations which goal is to reduce the gender gap in the tech-startup scene. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 5 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 7 2.1 Gender gap in STEM: a psychological, an economical and an educational approach 7 2.2 Women & tech startups: an old and persistent problem in the entrepreneurial environment 8 2.3 Role models & entrepreneurial intentions: solving the gender gap in the tech industry 9 2.4 Female role models: reducing gender gaps through examples 11 3. METHODS 13 3.1 Research design 13 3.2 Data collection 13 3.3 Data analysis 14 3.4 Organizing, entrepreneuring and sensemaking 15 3.5 A note on gender bias of the researcher 16 4. RESULTS 18 4.1 Characters 18 4.2 Context 18 4.3 Emerging themes 19 4.3.1 Sensemaking in causes of the gender gap in STEM fields 19 4.3.1.1 Communal motivation and empowerment 19 4.3.1.2 Work-life balance as a propelling to success 20 4.3.1.3 Networks of mutual support 21 4.3.2 Sensemaking in effects on the gender gap in tech field 21 4.3.2.1 Paving the way for innovative women 21 4.3.2.2 Human-oriented skills to enter tech scene 22 4.3.2.3 Well-informed decision makers 23 4.3.3 Sensemaking in learnings from role modelling in entrepreneurship 24 4.3.3.1 Learning observing tech-saving parents 24 4.3.3.2 Creating communities to spread positive narratives 25 4.3.3.3 Coaching to make self-efficacy flourish 25 4.3.4 Sensemaking in learnings from role modelling in other fields 26 4.3.4.1 Overcompensate to disconfirming stereotypes 26 4.3.4.2 Supporting networks to give voice to women 27 4.3.4.3 Family embeddedness as a path to success 27 4.3.5 Four propositions from an entrepreneuring and sensemaking point of view 28 3 4.3.5.1 Multiple identities empowering entrepreneurs 28 4.3.5.2 Valuable multiple inclusions communally motivated 29 4.3.5.3 Reducing equivocality nurturing a supportive network 29 4.3.5.4 Overcompensating to stimulate diversity of actors 30 5. CONCLUSION 31 5.1 Sensemaking of female entrepreneurial role models in a technological field 31 5.2 Findings and prior literature 31 5.3 Theoretical and practical implications 32 5.4 Limitations and future research 33 REFERENCES 34 APPENDIX I 38 APPENDIX II 40 APPENDIX III 41 4 1. INTRODUCTION Despite advances within a wide range of professional roles, women remain a minority in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees and occupations. Diekman, Weisgram & Belanger (2015) adopted a psychological perspective to explain the phenomenon. The goal congruity perspective contends that a fundamental cause of gender gaps in STEM pursuits is the gender difference in communal motivation (i.e. an orientation toward others) rather than gender differences in ability or achievement motivation. From an economic perspective, Beede et al. (2011) mention that, although women fill close to half of all jobs in the U.S. economy, they hold less than 25% of STEM jobs. Griffith (2010), based on an educational perspective, points out that during college many students switch from their planned major to another, particularly so when that planned major was in a STEM field. In the entrepreneurship field, this gender gap limits the number of technologic-based startups founded by women. When it comes to the Silicon Valley, the birth-place of some of the most innovative companies of our era, the problem is evident. Wadhwa & Chideya (2014) found that executive teams of the Valley's top tech firms have very few, if any, women technology heads. Additionally, virtually all of Silicon Valley's investment firms were male-dominated. An often-cited cause for the perpetuation of this gender gaps is the absence of female role models, that can inspire new generations of women to come into STEM fields. In the entrepreneurship field, role models are viewed as influential people by a significant proportion of the entrepreneurs who use them in the startup phase of their venture. Role modelling has been considered a key driver to solving gender gaps in areas such as politics and education (Marx & Roman, 2002; Wolbrecht & Campbell, 2007; Singh, Vinnicombe & James, 2006). However, the study of female role models is scarce in entrepreneurship literature. The absence of female entrepreneurial studies in the literature can be justified partly by the complexity of the subject. Role modelling demand multiple perspectives to be understood and it has a process nature, what makes it hard for positivist cross-sectional research designs to get valuable insights. Then, it comes another constraint from the entrepreneurship research point of view, which is the lack of works that assume the ongoing process nature of entrepreneurship. To address that challenge, the present study adopts an organizing perspective, focused in the sensemaking process, to find the answer of the following research question: how female role models make sense of their entrepreneurial journey in technology field? Specifically, it is wanted to 5 know 1) how female role models face the challenges of being a woman in technology field?; 2) what messages are being sent to women about entrepreneuring in technology field?; and 3) how these messages can increase entrepreneurial intentions of women in technology field?. Adopting the organizing perspective, allied to a methodology that captures the process nature of entrepreneurship, the present research brings theoretical contributions to the field of role modelling in entrepreneurship, applied to a relevant and growing subset of the entrepreneurial field: the creation of high-growth tech-startups firms. The present work is structured in 5 chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the subject and clarifies the research questions and its relevance to the literature. Chapter 2 describes the theoretical background of the problem, including causes of the gender gap in STEM fields, effects on the gender gap in tech field, learnings from role modelling in entrepreneurship and from role modelling in other fields. Chapter 3 clarifies the methodology, with special attention to the narrative approach and use of blogs in social science research. Chapter 4 highlights the results and offers four propositions that emerged from the data analysis. Chapter 5 summarizes the findings, with a reflection on the research question, followed by the limitations and suggestions for future research. 6 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Gender gap in STEM: a psychological, an economical and an educational approach Despite advances within a wide range of professional roles, women remain a minority in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees and occupations. Diekman, Weisgram & Belanger (2015) adopted a psychological perspective to explain the phenomenon. The goal congruity perspective contends that a fundamental cause of gender gaps in STEM pursuits is the gender difference in communal motivation (i.e. an orientation toward others) rather than gender differences in ability or achievement motivation. STEM fields may be exceptionally likely to deter communally oriented individuals because these fields are thought to impede goals of directly benefitting others, altruism, or collaboration. In the communal goal congruity framework, the orientation toward others can include two distinct aspects of collaboration (i.e. working with others) and helping (i.e. working to benefit others). From an economic perspective, Beede et al. (2011) mention that, although women fill close to half of all jobs in the U.S. economy, they hold less than 25% of STEM jobs. This has been the case throughout the past decade, even as college-educated women have increased their share of the overall workforce. Women with STEM jobs earned 33% more than women in non-STEM jobs – considerably higher than the STEM premium for men. As a result, the gender wage gap is smaller in STEM jobs than in non-STEM jobs. Women hold a disproportionately low share of STEM undergraduate degrees, particularly in engineering.