“Bitten by the entrepreneur bug” – critiquing discourses on women owner-managers/entrepreneurs in the Kenyan and Omani newspapers

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to critically analyze media discourses on women owner-managers/entrepreneurs (OMEs) in the Kenyan and Omani newspapers. Design/methodology/approach A critical discourse analysis is carried out on a total of 408 online media articles (174 articles from Omani newspapers and 234 articles from Kenyan newspapers) on women OMEs over the period 2010-2018. Articles are also classified based on their framing of women’s entrepreneurship. Findings Five main categories of media discourses are identified, i.e. discourses on government/institutional initiatives; women OMEs’ dependency; women OMEs’ femininity; women OMEs’ societal impact; and normalization of women OMEs. These gendered media discourses and underlying assumptions further perpetuate women OMEs’ subordinate position in society, weaken their social legitimacy and trivialize their roles as managers and leaders in society. Research limitations/implications The analysis was limited to online articles published in mainstream media. Future research could focus on offline print media from smaller media distributors or other distribution channels. Practical implications Policymakers and media houses need to pay greater attention to the subtle mechanisms reproducing gender stereotypes. Women OMEs should also take a more active role in constructing their identity in the media. Originality/value This paper highlights the underlying assumptions of media discourses regarding women’s empowerment that negatively impacts their social legitimacy. This paper also draws attention to media’s role in the trivialization of women OMEs’ leadership and managerial roles and subsequent marginalization of their social status.

Female entrepreneurship in emerging and developing countries: a systematic literature review

“…This method is based on the premise that methodological and other relationships embed power relationships that, although they may affect research results, scholars usually ignore (Yin, 2015); it is an appropriate method for studying power relations or the challenges related to patriarchal restrictions. Regarding quantitative studies, unusual methods, such as panel analysis (Owalla and Al Ghafri, 2020), fuzzy analytical hierarchical process and path analysis, could produce novel interpretations of the phenomena. Finally, scholars must undertake more mixed studies (only eight works employed such a strategy).…”

“…, 2017; Moreira et al. , 2019; Owalla and Al Ghafri, 2020; Xie and Lv, 2016). Female entrepreneurship's relevance seems particularly true in emerging and developing economies (De Vita et al.…”

“…Over time, the number of women entrepreneurs has grown worldwide (Feder and Nit ¸u-Antonie, 2017;Isaga, 2019;Owalla and Al Ghafri, 2020;Patrick et al, 2016;Zhang and Zhou, 2019). Presently, "women are more active than men in entrepreneurship" (Zhang and Zhou, 2019, p. 1).…”

“…This increase in female entrepreneurship has drawn scholars' attention (Bianchi et al, 2016;Ferreira et al, 2017;Santos et al, 2018;Wu et al, 2019). Several authors have underlined women entrepreneurs' importance to their countries' socioeconomic development (Baranik et al, 2018;Cabrera and Mauricio, 2017;Marques et al, 2017;Moreira et al, 2019;Owalla and Al Ghafri, 2020;Xie and Lv, 2016). Female entrepreneurship's relevance seems particularly true in emerging and developing economies (De Vita et al, 2014;Marques et al, 2017;Zhang and Zhou, 2019).…”

“…Over time, the number of women entrepreneurs has grown worldwide (Feder and Niţu-Antonie, 2017; Isaga, 2019; Owalla and Al Ghafri, 2020; Patrick et al. , 2016; Zhang and Zhou, 2019).…”