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Women entrepreneurs negotiating identities in liminal digital spaces

Journal: Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice

Date: 2023

Author: Grainne Kelly, Maura McAdam

Abstract:
Our article conceptualizes the experiences of women entrepreneurs through exploring how they negotiate an entrepreneurial identity in liminal digital spaces. Providing empirically textured narrative portraits of women’s experience of transitioning from employment to a digital entrepreneurial career, this article counters the ascendant rhetoric celebrating the democratizing promise of digital technologies. We present a more critical analysis of the experience of self-doubt and existential precarity including the ways in which gender norms permeate the intimate structures of women entrepreneurs’ everyday lives and selves. We also develop the concept of liminality by illustrating how women digital entrepreneurs cope with liminality through identity play and identity work.

Link: Google Scholar

Background and Context

Research Focus

This study explores how women entrepreneurs negotiate identities during career transitions into digital entrepreneurship within the health and fitness sector.

Research Gap

Despite digitalization opening new opportunities, women's experiences in digital entrepreneurship remain underexplored and their identity negotiation processes poorly understood.

Methodology

Qualitative research design with feminist social constructivist approach, featuring in-depth interviews with nine women digital entrepreneurs in health and fitness.

Career Transition Journey Through Liminality: Separation to Incorporation

Separation Liminality "Betwixt and Between" Incorporation Leaving Employment Digital Entrepreneurship Transition New Entrepreneurial Identity
  • Women entrepreneurs experience three-phase transition: separation from employment, liminality in transition, and incorporation of new identity.
  • The liminal middle phase represents an ambiguous state where entrepreneurs are "betwixt and between" identities.
  • This process follows van Gennep's rites of passage framework, structuring how women transition to digital entrepreneurship.

Identity Negotiation: Oscillation Between Identity Play and Identity Work

Identity Negotiation in Liminal Spaces Identity Play Open-ended exploration Guided by internal motives Creative future identities Reflecting on values Identity Work Responding to social demands Resisting gendered expectations Balancing boundaries Creating inclusive communities
  • Women oscillate between identity play (creative exploration) and identity work (responding to social demands) in liminal spaces.
  • Identity play allows experimentation with future possibilities, while identity work maintains coherence amid social pressures.
  • This oscillation is a core finding, showing women's agency is both enabled and constrained in digital spaces.

Digital Spaces Paradox: Simultaneously Emancipatory and Constraining for Women

Digital Spaces: Emancipatory Yet Constraining Emancipatory Extended boundaries Agency and reflexivity Creative self-expression Online community support Constraining Body politics Neoliberal healthism Constant connectivity Online harassment Paradoxical Experience
  • Women experience digital spaces as paradoxically both liberating and constraining, countering simplistic "democratizing" rhetoric about digital technologies.
  • Digital spaces enable extended boundaries and creative expression while simultaneously imposing body ideals and constant connectivity.
  • This paradox highlights how neoliberal postfeminist cultures both empower and marginalize women entrepreneurs in digital spaces.

Identity Work Strategies Women Use to Navigate Digital Entrepreneurship

Identity Work Strategies Resisting Gendered Discourses Creating Inclusive Communities Balancing Work-Life Boundaries Coherent Entrepreneurial Identity
  • Women employ three key identity work strategies to maintain coherence in digital entrepreneurship spaces.
  • Resisting gendered healthism discourses helps women contest normative ideals of the feminine body and fitness.
  • Creating inclusive online communities and setting work-life boundaries are essential for sustaining entrepreneurial identities.

The Transformative Journey: From Employee to Digital Entrepreneur

Employment Liminal Transition Digital Entrepreneur Job Discontentment Identity Oscillation Communitas & Purpose From Employee to Digital Entrepreneur
  • Women begin with job discontentment, move through identity oscillation, and ultimately find purpose and community.
  • The non-linear journey shows periods of both struggle and transformation as identities evolve.
  • Incorporation phase features "communitas" - a sense of belonging and solidarity within online communities.

Contribution and Implications

  • Advances understanding of entrepreneurial identity by revealing how women's identities evolve through oscillation between play and work.
  • Challenges simplistic "democratization" narratives by showing digital entrepreneurship is both emancipatory and constraining for women.
  • Develops liminality theory by illustrating how women cope with ambiguous identities through specific negotiation strategies.
  • Demonstrates how gender norms permeate digital spaces, particularly in health and fitness sectors focused on body discipline.
  • Offers insights for policy and practice on supporting women through entrepreneurial transitions with appropriate resources and communities.

Data Sources

  • All visualizations are based on qualitative findings from interviews with nine women digital entrepreneurs in health and fitness.
  • The career transition visualization draws on findings related to the rites of passage framework (p. 1952-1954).
  • The identity play versus identity work visualization is based on findings from pages 1954-1957.
  • The digital spaces paradox visualization draws on findings about emancipatory and constraining aspects (p. 1955-1956).
  • The identity work strategies and transformative journey visualizations interpret findings from the data structure in Table 3.