The Wellbeing of Women in Entrepreneurship

26 Enhancing wellbeing of women in entrepreneurship in media narrative

Bronwyn Eager, Sharon Grant, and Naomi Birdthistle

Introduction

It is widely accepted that men are normative actors on the entrepreneurship stage – a stage lit by the glow of television and film messaging, and set to the backdrop of newspaper headlines, magazine copy and social discourse-inspired folklore. A woman walking into the lobby of this theatre is likely to be struck by the notable absence of self-representation.

In this chapter, we argue that gender-based inequality in entrepreneurship is symptomatic of stereotyped narratives of women entrepreneurs – in particular, stereotypes presented in the media. We further argue that a lack of female representation, and the ...