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Developing Entrepreneurial Women - Changing Horizo..
Developing Entrepreneurial Women - Changing Horizons
Start date: Sep 1, 2015,
End date: Aug 31, 2018
PROJECT
FINISHED
The project addresses two inter-related challenges:
1. Under-representation and under-utilisation of women in entrepreneurship.
While increasing numbers of women are becoming involved in entrepreneurship and make vital contributions to economies, in most contexts globally fewer women than men start and run new businesses; fewer still run mature businesses, indicating issues with long term sustainability (Kelley et al, 2013). Despite being contested, under-performance hypotheses, positioning female owned businesses as less successful than male owned, are perpetuated (McAdam, 2013) and distort policy, business support and education/training interventions in ways that are unhelpful.
2. Entrepreneurship education is still a relatively new field; little attention has been paid to gendered perspectives (Ettl and Welter, 2010).
There is over-reliance on inappropriate, traditional teaching methods and content more suited studying large organisations than preparation for future entrepreneurs and the start up and development of entrepreneurial organisations (Williams Middleton and Donnellon, 2014; Mwasalwiba, 2010). Recent research into enterprise and entrepreneurship education offered within European HEIs reveals an unconscious masculine bias in promotion, pedagogy and content (Jones and Warhuus, 2014; Jones, 2011). This may explain the lack of take up by female students of (optional) generic enterprise and entrepreneurship focused modules/courses and may contribute to a vicious circle which perpetuates negative stereotyping and alienates women from considering entrepreneurial careers.
Objectives are to develop an industry endorsed, validated, joint Masters in Gender and Entrepreneurship. Through the project activities, additional objectives will be to contribute to promoting and encouraging entrepreneurship as a viable career option for women and girls and to contribute to developing knowledge and good practice in gender and entrepreneurship research and in women’s entrepreneurship education in Higher Education Institutions.
The project aims to engage with 222 participants. In addition to generic barriers to start up and growth that may be encountered by any business, women may also encounter gender specific barriers including less social, human, financial, symbolic and entrepreneurial capital (McAdam, 2013); lack of confidence and lack of self efficacy may be of key significance (Kirkwood, 2009) together with greater degrees of difficulty in reconciling home or personal priorities with those of business..
An action research framework will underpin the project so that greater insights and more specific knowledge and understanding will be accumulated as the project progresses. This will result in the project activities increasing in quality and relevance.
Reflecting the importance in gender and entrepreneurship of context upon opportunities and constraints, the consortium partners (Wales/UK, France and Greece) represent different socio-political economic contexts. The project design features individual and group interviews in each of the partner countries and transnational intensive programmes enable the learning and teaching approach, content and materials to be trialled with women from different contexts within Europe.
Through the transnational intensive programmes and dissemination activities, 71 women will gain increased entrepreneurial capital, confidence and self efficacy; entrepreneurial knowledge and skills development and increased awareness of strategies to overcome gender specific challenges to entrepreneurship. Through dissemination activities, 27 researchers, teachers, trainers, lecturers and 26 policy makers and business support professionals will have greater knowledge and understanding of strategies for Integrating best practice in the delivery of gender aware and gender sensitive entrepreneurship education, related policy and business support.
Regarding challenge 1, the project will promote entrepreneurship as a relevant career choice for women. The research, development and dissemination activities will raise awareness of limiting stereotypes and their negative implications at an individual level for female entrepreneurs and at an institutional level (policy, higher education) for female entrepreneurship. Alternative, gender sensitive models will be identified and promoted.
Regarding challenge 2, new, gender sensitive approaches to course promotion, teaching and learning methods and content will be developed, piloted and disseminated widely. The course will equip individual female entrepreneurs with strategies to help them overcome gender specific barriers to entrepreneurial careers. It will also empower them as entrepreneurial (future) leaders to contribute to the development and promotion of more relevant and gender aware entrepreneurial theory, policy and practice.