5: Women’s Entrepreneurship

Women’s entrepreneurship represents a significant social, economic, and cultural phenomenon that has undergone substantial evolution over the past decades (Iqbal et al., 2024; Yadav & Unni, 2016). This development has been influenced by increasing awareness of gender disparities in the entrepreneurial world, transformations in the labor market, and the emergence of social movements advocating for women’s economic empowerment (Ahl, 2006).

The first academic investigations into women’s entrepreneurship date back to the late 1970s and early 1980s, a period during which the feminist movement had already laid the groundwork for broader reflection on the role of women in society. Pioneering studies, such as those by Schwartz (1976) and Hisrich (1986), explored the specificity of women’s entrepreneurial experiences, highlighting the unique challenges they faced, rooted not only in structural barriers but also in deeply ingrained cultural biases.