Acknowledging Alternative Perceptions of Success Among Internally Displaced Female Entrepreneurs: An Intersectional Perspective

Abstract

This study addresses the misrepresentation of women entrepreneurs in scientific research as underperformers, as such misrepresentation is based on objective, financial measures of success. The purpose of the study is to explain how perceptions of entrepreneurial success are shaped with regard to the context of internally (i.e., not internationally) displaced people (IDPs) by looking at female Palestinian entrepreneurs who run businesses in the West Bank region of Palestine. To this end, the subjective nature of success is demonstrated with reference to the critical realist positional approach to intersectionality, which emphasises how disadvantage and privilege are perceived in light of the entrepreneur’s circumstances (transfactuality) and how success is shaped by overlapping identity categorisations of gender, ethnicity, and social class (intersectionality), the historical and contemporary influence of patriarchy and military occupation (temporal positionality), and a city or a refugee camp as a business location (spatial positionality). The results of this study, which emerge from data collected from a sample of female IDP Palestinian entrepreneurs, encourage policymakers and financial institutions to acknowledge and appreciate alternative, non-financial measures of success in their decisions to support these entrepreneurs, who can have a significant impact on the well-being of their society, even absent significant financial success.