Post-Feminism and Entrepreneurship: Interpreting Disgust in a Female Entrepreneurial Narrative

Abstract

This chapter derives from an interview study conducted over a one-year period 2006-7, which sought to explore the identity-construction labours undertaken by a group of women business owners, as a means of ‘fitting in’ to the world of entrepreneurship. Explorations of the interview data revealed quite early on in the fieldwork the negative views and attitudes some respondents had towards women who were perceived to be inappropriately feminine within a business context. What stood out was the level of animosity towards those who were ‘marked’ as being excessively feminine and the effort made by individuals to distinguish and distance themselves from ‘overly feminine’ women. Those who were deemed to be too feminine were variously described as looking ‘too maternal’, labelled as ‘ladies who lunch’ or said to be running ‘girly businesses’. What was striking about this hostility was the level of disgust attached to it, and the focus of this chapter is to consider how these expressions of disgust should be understood.