Dearth of feminist empirical research on women’s active participation in the ICT sector

Abstract

This paper seeks to create awareness of the need for research academics and practitionersinvolved in the ICT field collaborate in co-producing feminist empirical research studies thatintegrate theory and practice (evidence-based) when doing research on the circumstancerelated to women’s entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship in the context of the Eastern CapeProvince in South Africa, which is under scrutiny. The notion of cross-professional collaboration istriggered by recommendations extrapolated from a qualitative case study conducted on the ICTsector in the Eastern Cape, wherein the findings allude to a gap in empirical research studiesemploying feminist epistemological and methodological norms of inquiry in examining women’sentrepreneurial and intrapreneurial activities. This paper advances the view that initiating atrend within the researcher community, where follow-up studies are conducted from researchrecommendations, will stimulate reflection and debate around empirically grounded feministscholarship in an emerging and unexplored field of research, namely women’s entrepreneurshipand intrapreneurship, in both urban and rural settings of the ICT sector.