Abstract
PurposeWhereas the extant literature on women's entrepreneurship is almost exclusively focused on developed nations, the effect of many context-specific issues of other countries on ventures of women has been overlooked. The study aims to reveal how political unrest, a common feature of the developing nation, can significantly affect the experiences of women in small businesses of that region.Design/methodology/approachThis feminist research is conducted on Bangladesh, which is one of the most politically unstable countries in the world. The study conducts interviews with women to explore the adverse effect of political unrest on their small firms.FindingsThe feminist research reveals some problems of women business-owners concerning political unrest in this highly patriarchal context. It also discloses how political chaos challenges the government initiative in financially supporting women business-owners.Practical implicationsPolicymakers of developing nations can be benefitted by taking into account the problems of women business-owners concerning political unrest, specifically the access to debt financing issues while designing policies for women's empowerment.Originality/valueThe article contributes to the women's entrepreneurship scholarship with reference to political unrest, a contextual issue of developing nations. Whereas the existing studies mostly concentrate on holding women individually liable for the limited scale of their business operation, this research potentially challenges the view by drawing upon political unrest as an external factor that negatively affects their ventures. The study further advances the prevailing knowledge by critically unveiling some gender-specific problems of women business-owners regarding political unrest.
Highlights
The body of literature on women’s entrepreneurship is almost exclusively based on developed economies (Brush and Cooper, 2012; Yadav and Unni, 2016) while it overlooks other areas of the world (Mun~oz-Fernandez et al, 2019)
Some problems seem to be generic in nature that could exist for any business person, but some of the issues were gendered that were faced only by women businessowners in this highly patriarchal developing nation. (Table 2 summarises the findings of the study)
4.1 Adverse effects on business activities The experiences of the women present the gloomy scenario of the business activities due to political unrest that provides a good understanding on the broader picture of the business environment whereas the literature overlooks external issues concerning women’s entrepreneurship (Ahl, 2006)
Summary
The body of literature on women’s entrepreneurship is almost exclusively based on developed economies (Brush and Cooper, 2012; Yadav and Unni, 2016) while it overlooks other areas of the world (Mun~oz-Fernandez et al, 2019). This developed nation-centric view assumes that it presents the normative model of entrepreneurial issues of the world (Fielden and Davidson, 2005). The full terms of this license may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
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