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Organization Studies
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Article

Enterprising Identities: Female Entrepreneurs of Moroccan or Turkish Origin in the Netherlands

Caroline Essers Yvonne Benschop*

Nijmegen School of Management, the Netherlands

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.


  Abstract

This paper explores the complex processes of identity construction of female ethnic minority entrepreneurs. Informed by discursive approaches to identity, we make an intersectional analysis of five life stories of female entrepreneurs of Moroccan or Turkish origin in the Netherlands. Being female, Turkish or Moroccan, and entrepreneur at the same time requires various strategies to negotiate identities with different constituencies. These strategies of identity work vary in the degree of conformity: one type is to mainly adhere to conventional images of femininity, a second one is to denounce femininity and/or ethnicity situationally, and the third is to resist the masculine connotation of entrepreneurship by disconnecting it from masculinity. Our focus on this hitherto neglected group of entrepreneurs makes for a situated contribution to the deconstruction of the entrepreneurial archetype of the white male hero. It furthers the understanding of the micropolitics of identity construction in the workplace in relation to the social categories of gender, ethnicity and entrepreneurship.

Key Words: multiple identity, entrepreneurship, gender, ethnicity

First published on September 7, 2006, doi:10.1177/0170840606068256

Organization Studies 2007;28:49.

A more recent version of this article appeared on January 1, 2007

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