Hidden in the limelight: A feminist engagement with innovation studies

Abstract

Innovation is filled with aspirations for solutions to problems, and for laying the groundwork for new technological and social breakthroughs. When a concept is so positively charged, the hopes expressed may create blindness to potential shortcomings and deadlocks. To disclose innovation blind spots, we approach innovation from a feminist viewpoint. We see innovation as a context that changes historically, and as revolution, offering alternative imaginaries of the relationship between race, gender and innovation. Our theoretical framework combines bell hooks (capitalist patriarchy and intersectionality), Mazzucato (the entrepreneurial state and the changing context of innovation) and Fraser (redistributive justice) and contributes with an understanding of innovation from the margin by unveiling its political dimensions. Hidden Figures, the 2016 biographical drama that follows three Black women working at NASA during the space race, provides the empirical setting of the paper. Our analysis contributes to emerging intersectionality research in management and organisation studies (MOS) by revealing the subject positions and dynamics of inclusion/exclusion in innovation discourses, and by proposing a radical – and more inclusive – rethinking of innovation. With this article, we aim to push the margins to the centre and invite others to discover the terrain of the margin(alised). We suggest that our feminist framework is appropriate to study other organisational phenomena, over time and across contexts, to bring forward the plurality of women’s experiences at work and in organisations.

Catalyzing change: Innovation in women's entrepreneurship

“…However, the increasing acknowledgment of gender differences in entrepreneurial activity (Gatewood, Carter, Brush, Greene, & Hart, 2003; Henry et al, 2016; Kim, Lee, & Yeo, 2021) has not been reflected in the innovation domain. Thus, to achieve a better understanding of innovation by women entrepreneurs and to move the field forward, it is important to acknowledge the evolution of both gender‐based entrepreneurship research (Ahl, 2006; Jennings & Brush, 2013; Peake & Eddleston, 2021; Strawser et al, 2021) and innovation research in general (Alsos et al, 2013; Pecis, 2016; Pecis & Berglund, 2021; Poutanen & Kovalainen, 2013).…”

“…While entrepreneurship is recognized as a gendered phenomenon (Eddleston & Powell, 2008; Jennings & Brush, 2013; Marlow & McAdam, 2015; Peake & Eddleston, 2021; Powell & Eddleston, 2013), innovation research has yet to acknowledge the “complexities of the movements and interactions between femininities and masculinities” within the innovation domain (Pecis, 2016, p. 27). By approaching innovation from a feminist perspective, “innovation blind spots” can be identified and overcome (Pecis & Berglund, 2021), and the diversity of women entrepreneurs' experiences with innovation can be discovered. Furthermore, while intersectionality is increasingly recognized in women's entrepreneurship research, we still know relatively little about how the markers of differences such as ethnicity, religion, education, and socioeconomic status intersect with gender and biological sex research to limit women's engagement with innovation (Essers & Benschop, 2009; Pecis & Berglund, 2021).…”

“…By approaching innovation from a feminist perspective, “innovation blind spots” can be identified and overcome (Pecis & Berglund, 2021), and the diversity of women entrepreneurs' experiences with innovation can be discovered. Furthermore, while intersectionality is increasingly recognized in women's entrepreneurship research, we still know relatively little about how the markers of differences such as ethnicity, religion, education, and socioeconomic status intersect with gender and biological sex research to limit women's engagement with innovation (Essers & Benschop, 2009; Pecis & Berglund, 2021).…”

“…This lack of focus on people in the innovation process ensures that the gender perspectives and other personal characteristics of the scientists, technologists, and innovators remain invisible (Etzkowitz & Kemelgor, 2001). As a result, we have limited understanding of the gender dimension in innovation and how a feminine perspective may contribute to innovation research (Pecis & Berglund, 2021).In contrast, there has been much progress in examining women's entrepreneurship (Jennings & Brush, 2013;…”

Innovation Beyond Borders: On Alternative Feminist Discourses of Innovation

“…In contrast, women have been less likely to be granted the status of innovators (Berglund and Granat Thorslund, 2012). Their contributions have often been neglected (Blake and Hanson, 2005), and historical female inventors have been blatantly made invisible (Pecis and Berglund, 2021). Feminist engagements with innovation have certainly challenged the gendered innovation discourse.…”