Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Women’s Business in Remote Villages: Two Generations, Many Changes

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Diversity and Inclusion in the Start-Up Ecosystem

Part of the book series: Responsible Leadership and Sustainable Management ((RLSM))

  • 144 Accesses

Abstract

The chapter examines female entrepreneurship in Israeli remote rural areas, exploring factors influencing its development, employment challenges, and women's historic role in managing households, agriculture, and livestock farms in these settlements. These villages thrived through agriculture until the 1980 crisis when non-agricultural industries diversified their livelihoods. This economy evolved from agriculture to a multifaceted one, incorporating tourism, hospitality, business entrepreneurship, and liberal professions for income generation. The changes in the rural space have affected the women primarily engaged in the agricultural economy leading to the launching of small businesses and independent professions. They showcased creativity and professional skills through businesses that introduced new services to underserved rural areas. We present findings of a 10-year study that explores rural women entrepreneurs, employing mixed methods to reveal the scope, nature, location, strengths, and impact of their businesses on the overall landscape. Findings also highlight evolving occupations and expanding networks among women in the periphery.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adams RB, Funk P (2012) Beyond the glass ceiling: Does gender matter? Manage Sci 58(2):219–235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Afolabi A, Radhakrishnan S, Sundaresan V (2013) Measuring the economic contribution of entrepreneurship in a region.‏ In: Paper presented at the meeting of the Principles of Technology Innovation Management

    Google Scholar 

  • Alston M (2004) Who is down on the farm? Social aspects of Australian agriculture in the 21st century. Agric Hum Values 21(1):37–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Akcigit U, Kerr WR (2018) Growth through heterogeneous innovations. J Polit Econ 126(4):1374–1443

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atterton J, Affleck A (2010) Rural businesses in the north east of England: final survey results, 2009. Centre for Rural Economy, Newcastle University, Newcastle

    Google Scholar 

  • Beltran-Peña A, Rosa L, D’Odorico P (2020) Global food self-sufficiency in the 21st century under sustainable intensification of agriculture. Environ Res Lett 15(9):095004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ben Aaron N (2016) Periodic report: the state of small and medium-sized businesses in Israel. Ministry of Economy and Industry, Jerusalem. http://www.economy.gov.il/Publications/Publications/DocLib/SmallBusineeReportJan2016.pdf

  • Ben Aharon N (2021) Periodic report on the state of small and medium businesses in Israel. Ministry of Economy and Industry, Jerusalem. https://www.sba.org.il/hb/PolicyAndInformation/Researches/Documents/HasakimKtanim21.pdf

  • Ben-David L (2004) Women's entrepreneurship in Israel: data update. Knesset of Israel, Research and Information Center, Jerusalem. https://www.knesset.gov.il/mmm/data/pdf/m01153.pdf

  • Ben-Dror G, Sofer M (2010) Aspects of weakening cooperation in the Israeli Moshav. J Rural Coop 38(886–2016–64634):156–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benzing C, Chu HM, Kara O (2009) Entrepreneurs in Turkey: a factor analysis of motivations, success factors, and problems. J Small Bus Manag 47(1):58–91

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bock BB (2010) Personal and social development of women in rural areas of Europe. European Parliament, Brussels

    Google Scholar 

  • Bosma N, Sanders M, Stam E (2018) Institutions, entrepreneurship, and economic growth in Europe. Small Bus Econ 51(2):483–499

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buhalis D, Cooper C (1998) Competition and co-operation: Small and medium sized tourism enterprises at the destination. In: Laws E, Faulkner B, Moscardo G (eds) Embracing and managing change in tourism. Routledge, London, pp 329–351

    Google Scholar 

  • Ceccato C, Persson D (2002) Dynamics of rural areas: an assessment of clusters of employment in Sweden. J Rural Stud 18(1):49–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corcoran J, Faggian A, McCann P (2010) Human capital in remote and rural Australia: the role of graduate migration. Growth Chang 41(2):192–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crandall MS, Weber BA (2004) Local social and economic conditions, spatial concentrations of poverty, and poverty dynamics. Am J Agr Econ 86(5):1276–1281

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ‏ Duhan R (2007) Women entrepreneurship in India. Rural Entrep 147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dolev Y, Kimhi A (2008) Does farm size really converge? The role of unobserved farm efficiency (Discussion paper No. 11.08). The Center for Agricultural Economic Research, Rehovot, Israel

    Google Scholar 

  • Eyben R, Napier-Moore R (2009) Choosing words with care? Shifting meanings of women’s empowerment in international development. Third World Q 30(2):285–300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ‏ Fernandes GP (2019) Rural depopulation, social resilience and context costs in the border municipalities of central Portugal. Dichotomies of social reorganization vs absence of public policies. Econ Agraria y Recursos Nat-Agric Resour Econ 19(1):121–149.

    Google Scholar 

  • Figueroa-Armijos M, Johnson TG (2013) Entrepreneurship in rural America across typologies, gender and motivation. J Dev Entrep 18(2):135–148

    Google Scholar 

  • Fogiel-Bijaoui S, Sharaby R (eds) (2017) Dynamics of gender borders: women in Israel’s cooperative settlements. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

    Google Scholar 

  • Foss NJ, Bjørnskov C (2016) Institutions, entrepreneurship, and economic growth: what do we know and what do we still need to know? Acad Manag Perspect 30(3):292–315

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garcia-Tabuenca A, Pablo-Martí F, Crecente-Romero F (2015) Women entrepreneurship: changes in access to credit and business results (2003–2013). Paper (No. ersa15p496) delivered in European Regional Science Association (ERSA) conference papers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Getz D, Carlsen J, Morrison A (2004) The family businesses in tourism and hospitality. CABI Publishing, Oxfordshire

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg Z (2013) Domestic wine production in the golan heights: aspects of changes and adaptations to the era of the global economy. In: Kliott N, Charney V (eds) Essays in Haifa and Northern Israel research: a collection of essays in honor of Prof. Baruch Kipnis. University of Haifa, Haifa, pp 199–214

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg ZW, Sagiv-Reiss DM (2013) Young Arab women at the crossroads between the traditional and the modern: analysis of life stories of Arab Muslim students who have left home to achieve higher education. Mediterr J Soc Sci 4(2):143–143

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg Z, Farja Y, Gimmon E (2018) Embeddedness and growth of small businesses in rural regions. J Rural Stud 62:174–182

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta VK, Turban DB, Wasti SA, Sikdar A (2009) The role of gender stereotypes in perceptions of entrepreneurs and intentions to become an entrepreneur. Entrep Theory Pract 33(2):397–417

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heilbrunn S (2004) Impact of gender on difficulties faced by entrepreneurs. Int J Entrep Innov 5(3):159–165

    Google Scholar 

  • Heilbrunn S (2022) Dark sides of the startup nation: winners and losers of technological innovation and entrepreneurship in Israel. Taylor & Francis

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoggart K, Black R, Buller H (2014) Rural Europe. Routledge, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hussain F (2020) Introduction: the ideal and the contextual realities of Muslim women. In: Muslim women. Routledge, pp 1–7

    Google Scholar 

  • Isaga N (2018) Start-up motives and challenges facing female entrepreneurs in Tanzania. Int J Gend Entrep

    Google Scholar 

  • Jayawarna D, Rouse J, Kitching J (2013) Entrepreneur motivations and life course. Int Small Bus J 31(1):34–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khatiwada LK, Silva JA (2015) Mitigating gender inequality in rural regions: the effects of tourism employment in Namibia. Int J Tour Res 17(5):442–450

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kimhi A, Rapaport E (2004) Time allocation between farm and off-farm activities in Israeli farm households. Am J Agr Econ 86(3):716–721

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kristiansen S (2004) Social networks and business success. Am J Econ Sociol 63(5):1149–1171

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karthikeyan L, Chawla I, Mishra AK (2020) A review of remote sensing applications in agriculture for food security: crop growth and yield, irrigation, and crop losses. J Hydrol 586:124905

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis S, Humbert L (2010) Discourse or reality? “Work-life balance”, flexible working policies and the gendered organization. Equal Divers Inclus Int J 29(3):239–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lerer M (2018) Data on women's employment in Israel, a comparison between the central districts and the peripheral districts. Published by the Research and Information Center. the Knesset Jerusalem

    Google Scholar 

  • Long H, Woods M (2011) Rural restructuring under globalization in eastern coastal China: what can be Learned from Wales? J Rural Community Dev 6(1):70–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Markantoni M, Strijker D, Koster S (2014) Motives for starting up a side activity in rural areas in the Netherlands. Local Econ 29(6):723–739

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLaughlin H, Uggen C, Blackstone A (2012) Sexual harassment, workplace authority and the paradox of power. Am Sociol Rev 77(4):625–647

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moreira J, Marques CS, Braga A, Ratten V (2019) A systematic review of women’s entrepreneurship and internationalization literature. Thunderbird Int Bus Rev 61(4):635–648

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palgi M, Orchan E (2005) Surveys of public opinion in the kibbutzim in 2005. Report (in Hebrew). Institute for Research of the Kibbutz and the Cooperative Idea, University of Haifa

    Google Scholar 

  • Palgi M, Reinharz S (eds) (2014) One hundred years of kibbutz life: a century of crises and reinvention. Transaction Publishers‏

    Google Scholar 

  • Pato L (2015) Rural entrepreneurship and innovation: some successful women's initiatives

    Google Scholar 

  • Pramono R, Sondakh LW, Bernarto I, Juliana J, Purwanto A (2021) Determinants of the small and medium enterprises progress: a case study of SME entrepreneurs in Manado, Indonesia. J Asian Financ Econ Bus 8(1):881–889

    Google Scholar 

  • Schnell I, Greenberg Z, Arnon S, Shamai S (2015) Entrepreneurship in the periphery and local growth: the case of northern Israel. GeoJournal 82(2):1–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Singer S, Amorós JE, Moska D (2015) Global entrepreneurship monitor 2014. Global Entrepreneurship Research Consortium, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Sofer M (2004) The second generation in the moshav: agriculture and pluriactivity. Horizons Geogr 60–61:119–126

    Google Scholar 

  • Sofer M, Applebaum L (2008) Self-employed business entrepreneurship in the family farm and its contribution to the development of agriculture and the rural settlement. Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Agriculture, Beit Dagan

    Google Scholar 

  • Sofer M, Saada MT (2017) Entrepreneurship of women in the rural space in Israel: catalysts and obstacles to enterprise development. Sociol Rural 57:769–790

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sa’ar E (2010) Women’s micro-entrepreneurship as a social mobility pathway: several paradoxical aspects. Israeli Sociol 11(2):43–65

    Google Scholar 

  • Sa’ar E (2014) Economic empowerment of disadvantaged women: a mediating concept of competing reality definitions. Theory Crit 42:151–174

    Google Scholar 

  • Shamai S, Arnon S, Greenberg Z, Schnell Y (2015) Entrepreneurship in Jewish and Arab villages in the northern periphery. Soc Issues Israel 19:176–206

    Google Scholar 

  • Torri MC, Martinez A (2014) Women’s empowerment and micro-entrepreneurship in India: constructing a new development paradigm? Prog Dev Stud 14(1):31–48

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallerstein I (2011) The modern world-system I: capitalist agriculture and the origins of the European world-economy in the sixteenth century, vol 1. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wu W, Wang H, Zheng C, Wu YJ (2019) Effect of narcissism, psychopathy, and machiavellianism on entrepreneurial intention—the mediating of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Front Psychol 10:360

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kibutz Yiftah, Upper Galilee, Israel

    Zeevik Greenberg

  2. Moshav Beit-Hilel, Upper Galilee, Israel

    Yahel Kurlander

Authors
  1. Zeevik Greenberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yahel Kurlander
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zeevik Greenberg .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, Woxsen University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

    Kakoli Sen

  2. Aashdit Group, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

    Surekha Routray

  3. Sustainable Advancements (OPC) Private Limited, Kolkata, India

    Nayan Mitra

  4. Washington D.C, USA

    Yanire Braña

  5. Vern University, Zagreb, Croatia

    Gordana Ćorić

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Greenberg, Z., Kurlander, Y. (2023). Women’s Business in Remote Villages: Two Generations, Many Changes. In: Sen, K., Routray, S., Mitra, N., Braña, Y., Ćorić, G. (eds) Diversity and Inclusion in the Start-Up Ecosystem. Responsible Leadership and Sustainable Management. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5366-0_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation