Elements and parameters of feminist entrepreneurship policies
| Elements of feminist policy* | Parameters of feminist entrepreneurship policies | Illustrative references |
|---|---|---|
| Positionality Recognise gendered contexts of oppression | 1. Center gender equality, women's economic empowerment and LGBTQ2+ rights as underlying elements of entrepreneurship policy, acknowledging intersectional influences that situate subordination | Ahl and Nelson (2015), Pettersson et al. (2017) |
| 2. Redress power differentials within entrepreneurial ecosystems, including social norms, political and economic structures and cultural conditions that perpetuate inequalities | International Finance Corporation (2020), Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity (2019) | |
| 3. Acknowledge gendered processes within venture creation and occupational stereotypes that impact opportunity recognition and enterprise performance | Bird and Brush (2002), Brush et al. (2009, 2010), GWEP and OECD (2021), Lewis (2014) | |
| 4. Employ broad and inclusive definitions of innovation, honoring innovations important to women and women's innovative contributions | Ljunggren et al. (2010), Rowe (2018) | |
| 5. Leverage opportunities to influence multiple impacts of policy, including individual, material, perceptual, contextual and relational outcomes, recognising women's economic empowerment is an end in itself | Ahl and Nelson (2015), Mayoux (2000), Nelson (1995), El-Ahmed and Nabris (2019) | |
| Politics Politicking through deliberate actions to drive policy reform | 6. Mandate gender/sex-disaggregated data to enable reporting on access to resources, including social and financial capital, talent and digital technologies, holding intermediaries accountable for engaging diverse women entrepreneurs | GWEP and OECD (2021), Marlow et al. (2008), Tiessen (2019), W20 (2022) |
| 7. Construct integrated policy strategies that incorporate multiple policy domains (government agencies) that impact women entrepreneurs, including small business, self-employment, innovation, trade, income protection, healthcare, gender-based violence, financial/digital literacy, procurement and caregiving | El-Ahmed and Nabris (2019), Isele and Dubois (2020), GWEP and OECD (2021) | |
| 8. Facilitate broad consultations: reform must be a collective process to understand multiple contexts of subordination. Leverage feminist, gender, women's enterprise and policy expertise in policy design and associated funding decisions | Cirera and Qasim (2014), GWEP and OECD (2021), Herbert (2017), Weber (2016) | |
| Praxis Work to enact social change regarding the politicizing of issues | 9. Fund ecosystem intermediaries, including women-focused or targeted small business support services (e.g. feminist, grassroots, collective, co-operative and social enterprise support organizations) | El-Ahmed and Nabris (2019), Henry et al. (2017), Rao and Sander (2016) |
| 10. Create mechanisms to enable women entrepreneurs to be change agents in re-creating rules of marketplaces. Support market exchanges predicated on economic, social and utilitarian outcomes (e.g. co-operatives, social enterprises) | Harquail (2019), Lewis (2014), Nelson (1995), Orser and Elliott (2015) |
| Elements of feminist policy* | Parameters of feminist entrepreneurship policies | Illustrative references |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Center gender equality, women's economic empowerment and LGBTQ2+ rights as underlying elements of entrepreneurship policy, acknowledging intersectional influences that situate subordination | ||
| 2. Redress power differentials within entrepreneurial ecosystems, including social norms, political and economic structures and cultural conditions that perpetuate inequalities | ||
| 3. Acknowledge gendered processes within venture creation and occupational stereotypes that impact opportunity recognition and enterprise performance | ||
| 4. Employ broad and inclusive definitions of innovation, honoring innovations important to women and women's innovative contributions | ||
| 5. Leverage opportunities to influence multiple impacts of policy, including individual, material, perceptual, contextual and relational outcomes, recognising women's economic empowerment is an end in itself | ||
| 6. Mandate gender/sex-disaggregated data to enable reporting on access to resources, including social and financial capital, talent and digital technologies, holding intermediaries accountable for engaging diverse women entrepreneurs | ||
| 7. Construct integrated policy strategies that incorporate multiple policy domains (government agencies) that impact women entrepreneurs, including small business, self-employment, innovation, trade, income protection, healthcare, gender-based violence, financial/digital literacy, procurement and caregiving | ||
| 8. Facilitate broad consultations: reform must be a collective process to understand multiple contexts of subordination. Leverage feminist, gender, women's enterprise and policy expertise in policy design and associated funding decisions | ||
| 9. Fund ecosystem intermediaries, including women-focused or targeted small business support services (e.g. feminist, grassroots, collective, co-operative and social enterprise support organizations) | ||
| 10. Create mechanisms to enable women entrepreneurs to be change agents in re-creating rules of marketplaces. Support market exchanges predicated on economic, social and utilitarian outcomes (e.g. co-operatives, social enterprises) |
*Source(s): Kilty (2014)
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