The Gendering of Entrepreneurship on Reality Television

Abstract

Research on gender inequalities in entrepreneurship focuses more often on identifying or overcoming existing barriers rather than examining how stereotypical gendered beliefs and characterizations are created or maintained in the first place. We argue that the media provides a contextualized and sociocultural perspective into the gendering of entrepreneurship. Using a novel multimethod approach based on media framing analysis, we examine the content and social interactions portrayed during the first season of the reality television program Shark Tank to deconstruct the processes that normalize and reinforce gendered stereotypes and inequalities.