Do I (Want to) Fit In? Women Entrepreneurs’ Journey from Imposter Fears to Authenticity

Abstract

Research has established that entrepreneurship is a masculine domain in which women experience a ‘lack of fit’, yet we know surprisingly little about women entrepreneurs’ own perspectives on the role of gender in the entrepreneurial process. The goal of this qualitative investigation was to further our understanding of how women perceive and manage their gender as entrepreneurs. Our findings, based on an interpretative analysis of rich data from interviews and focus groups with 64 participants, offer a more nuanced perspective on the impact of gender in entrepreneurship, which appears to change over time. More specifically, we find that gender evolves from being seen as a potential hindrance that makes women feel like imposters to becoming more of an advantage in enabling women to succeed authentically as entrepreneurs. We contribute to entrepreneurship literature by analyzing differences among women and highlighting their heterogeneity (rather than comparing them to men) and to role congruency theory in the context of entrepreneurship by considering the effect of time. We also elaborate on these findings and what they mean for women’s unique challenges in entrepreneurship with the goal of making entrepreneurship more inclusive.