Chapter 8: Women Entrepreneurs and Crisis Recovery: Considerations Based on the United States Beauty Mogul Elizabeth Arden During an Economic and Marital Crisis

This chapter examines how women entrepreneurs manage to maintain control and power in their companies during times of crisis. To do so, it focuses on the case of Elizabeth Arden, who succeeded, during the 1930s crisis, not only in growing and expanding her cosmetics business but also above all, in overcoming another crisis: that of her marriage, knowing that her spouse was heavily involved in the company. Secondary data, based on a comparison of narratives produced by biographers and historians and analyzed through the lens of practices often used to describe entrepreneurial actions—causation, effectuation, and bricolage—show that Elizabeth Arden gradually shifted from causation to effectuation to overcome these two crises. This chapter offers a discussion of this practice to enable women entrepreneurs, in general, to navigate a context that is not favorable to them.