Research Information System
International Conference on Critical Debates in Social Sciences (ICCDSS), İzmir, Turkey, 05 October 2018, pp.23
As opposed to mainstream entrepreneurship studies, acknowledging entrepreneurship as a gendered concept and handling research and policies in this direction is important. In this direction, the purpose of this study is to portray gender specific characteristics and perceptions of entrepreneurship in Turkey as a masculine country. Design/methodology/approach: Interviews with entrepreneurs in two Turkish entrepreneurship-focused business magazines and one blog were analyzed. To understand the perspectives of female and male entrepreneurs and the differences based on their statements, qualitative analysis on the content of these interviews were performed. The choice of words and discourse of interviewees’ were analyzed. Findings: The most referred element of gendered entrepreneurship is family embeddedness based on stereotypical belief and norm systems. It is also clear that culturally embedded beliefs affect women’s expectations/projections, barriers and needs. Research limitations/implications: Since only successful entrepreneurs found space in magazines/blogs, unsuccessful ones were overlooked. Because the research is based on secondary data, only interview questions on hand were used. Originality/value: In Turkey, there is only a handful of studies concerning women entrepreneurship from the perspective of gender as a lens. In this article, gender specific perceptions on entrepreneurship in Turkey as a developing and a masculine country were revealed. Thus, in addition to understanding country specific characteristics of gendered entrepreneurship, the findings of such a patriarchal country could enable researchers to compare different country samples in the extended literature.