A new male entrepreneur?

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the representation of male entrepreneurs in the media has changed in the after-effects of the #metoo movement. Design/methodology/approach The authors perform a discourse analysis and visual analysis of how male entrepreneurs in the Swedish business magazine Affärsvärlden are represented. A centre-margin analysis is laid out, focusing on who and what constitutes (or endeavours to constitute) the legitimate male entrepreneur. Findings The results of the analysis show that male entrepreneurs are represented with different discursive success factors. These success factors are linked to a driven personality, a high-status leisure activity, a supportive but invisible family, a focus on financial measures and a global outlook. Marginally, there has been a change towards more humbleness, and a shift from financial growth to turnover, in the representation of entrepreneurial masculinities after the #metoo movement. Research limitations/implications To bring about a more equal norm regarding male entrepreneurial identity, more space and attention must be given in the media to the subordinate masculinities of entrepreneurs. Originality/value Previous gender research on entrepreneurship has, to a large extent, focussed on female entrepreneurs and research focussed on male entrepreneurs is conspicuous in its absence. However, the male entrepreneur, just like the female entrepreneur, needs to relate to, be compared with and adapt to a norm of how the ideal entrepreneur should be. Therefore, it is important to establish and illuminate who the male entrepreneur is assumed to be, to better understand and question that role.

Entrepreneurial Masculinity: A Fatherhood Perspective

“…Investigating (prospective) father entrepreneurs represents an excellent opportunity to understand how men entrepreneurs do gender at the intersection of work and family life (Hamilton, 2013; Jernberg et al, 2020; Marlow & Martinez Dy, 2018). This investigation may enable us to explore and theorize the enactment and reconfiguration of hegemonic entrepreneurial masculinity in a period characterized by the postfeminist discourse of changing expectations regarding a father’s roles within the family as a site of equalitarian gender relations.…”

“…This uncomfortable position is ideologically framed within the realm of neoliberalism—a set of capitalist economic ideas and social practices (Hayek, 1989) constructing the individual as a “self-governing neoliberal subject who takes responsibility to use her agency by developing an entrepreneurial self” (Ahl & Marlow, 2021, p. 44). Yet, we wonder to what extent different masculinities and fatherhoods are available for, and performed by, men entrepreneurs confronted with the dominant, hegemonic normative ideal of the neoliberal, heroic entrepreneurial masculinity (Jernberg et al, 2020). Furthermore, as being both a father and an entrepreneur imposes important normative expectations on men entrepreneurs, we still lack an understanding of how they engage with gender to manage and negotiate concurrent expectations in the postfeminist era (Gatrell et al, 2022; Gruson-Wood et al, 2022).…”

In the wake of the ironworks - entrepreneurship and the spatial connections to empowerment and emancipation

“…In Oakville, we saw how the stories worked as breeding ground for growing resistance against the discourses “running a proper business” and “growth”. This neo-liberal discourse advocated for at the garden is a gendered discourse, as it adheres to masculine norms of society (Smith, 2010; Jernberg et al, 2020). We viewed the voluntary work in the garden as entrepreneuring, and from these activities we saw empowered women and processes of emancipation; the historically grounded gender structure was provoked as a result of the developing garden.…”

“…Second, we also noted that entrepreneurial change happens outside of the business context, creating value beyond economic value (Korsgaard & Anderson, 2011). With the view of entrepreneurship as a change process, the focus shifts to challenges to gendered assumptions of what entrepreneurship is, for example, that entrepreneurship entails a willingness to take risks (Smith, 2010) or involves individuals with a strong financial orientation (Jernberg et al, 2020). Challenges to these conceptions of entrepreneurship may emerge when women engage in voluntary work or run a business.…”

Forging an entrepreneur – gendered ideas and ideals

“…Pettersson (2004) found a discourse on an industrial district in Sweden characterised by an ideal masculine entrepreneur centred on the ability of men to build their own companies through being “self-made”. Studies of media representations show that the masculine construction of entrepreneurship is a narrow stereotype, excluding the feminine and women (Hamilton, 2013; Jernberg et al ., 2020). When asking female and male students about an ideal entrepreneur, the ideal is a man carrying masculine attributes, such as not being timid or shy (Meyer et al ., 2017).…”