Digital inclusion of businesswomen and women entrepreneurs through social networks in the informal environment

Prudencia Gutiérrez-Esteban,Sixto Cubo-Delgado,María Lourdes Hernández-Rincón,Francisco De Paula Rodríguez-Miranda

doi:10.17583/generos.7146

Prudencia Gutiérrez-Esteban, Sixto Cubo-Delgado + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.17583/generos.7146

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Abstract

With the diffusion of Web 2.0, opportunities for collaboration, participation and training in the professional environment have widened. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of family set-up on the use of social networks by entrepreneurial women and businesswomen.Epistemologically, the study is based on the logical positivism and the hypothetical-deductive method. From a methodological point of view, this research is quantitative and presents a descriptive design.The participants in the study are woman from Extremadura and Andalucia (Spain), 477 entrepreneurs and 126 businesswomen. The forms of use of social networks by businesswomen and women entrepreneurs varies according to age-group. However, the age does not appear to have any impact on the places where social networks are used.The results lead us to believe that, in order to attain equality in the domain of digital inclusion, it is necessary to set up formal digital training to increase their digital presence and participation.

Highlights

With the diffusion of Web 2.0, opportunities for collaboration, participation and training in the professional environment have widened
In Spain, these work-related issues become yet more serious when we compare women with their male counterparts, if we take into account that women are educated to a higher level, are in the majority at most levels of the education system and obtain better academic results (Gutiérrez-Esteban & Luengo-González, 2011; Martínez-Pastor, 2017).concerning the developed world, we can refer to the paradox between the academic level reached by women and the roles that they occupy in society, while we can see that, both nationally and internationally, horizontal and vertical segregation remains unchanged throughout the majority of highereducation systems (Charles & Bradley, 2009; Tellhed, Backstrom, & Bjorklund, 2017)
The study is based on the logical positivism and the hypothetical-deductive method

Summary

Introduction

With the diffusion of Web 2.0, opportunities for collaboration, participation and training in the professional environment have widened. In Spain, these work-related issues become yet more serious when we compare women with their male counterparts, if we take into account that women are educated to a higher level, are in the majority at most levels of the education system and obtain better academic results (Gutiérrez-Esteban & Luengo-González, 2011; Martínez-Pastor, 2017).concerning the developed world, we can refer to the paradox between the academic level reached by women and the roles that they occupy in society, while we can see that, both nationally and internationally, horizontal and vertical segregation remains unchanged throughout the majority of highereducation systems (Charles & Bradley, 2009; Tellhed, Backstrom, & Bjorklund, 2017) This phenomenon is reflected in the job market: women’s entry into the working world has been a trend over the last few decades, due to the structure of the economy itself and as a result of the attitudes and behaviour of social and economic agents, which are reproduced in the organisation of society and family life. The problems of unemployment and entrepreneurialism have increased during the period of the economic crisis with a global unemployment rate of 13.8% (15.6% for women); this is far above the EU

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