I will be presenting a State of the Art review on the future of women’s enterprise at The Shard in London on 12 March 2020.

My paper, co-written with Profs Dilani Jayawarna and Susan Marlow, is entitled: Is Expanding Women’s Self-employment A Good Thing? A Critical Reflection. The abstract is as follows:

Despite the increasing critical reflexivity and scope of the literature that study the influence of gender upon women’s engagement with entrepreneurship, a number of foundational debates persist to inform research efforts – that fewer women create new ventures and when they do, their ventures are more likely to exhibit poorer performance parameters and are less likely to grow when compared to the population male. Regardless of this, there is a generic presumption that entrepreneurship is a desirable career choice for women and moreover, society will benefit if more women become entrepreneurs. Within this SOTA review, we challenge the notion that entrepreneurship is a positive choice for women or indeed, necessarily generates broader socio-economic benefits. We base this argument upon the evidence that despite claims it offers women work-life balance, it can create new time pressures and generate poorer returns than employment, whilst individual employment or State provided benefits such as paid ante-natal support, extended paid maternity leave, subsidised child care are rationed or absent.

Register for the event here today!