Women in the Shark Tank: Entrepreneurship and Feminism in a Neoliberal Age

Abstract

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction I. Defeating Gender Inequality A. Post-Feminism B. Neoliberal Feminism II. Perpetuating Gender Inequality A. Underrepresentation and Underinvestment B. Sexism C. Second Class (Again) III. Legal Feminism in Entrepreneurial Times A. Harm to Female Entrepreneurs B. Harm to Working Women C. Harm to AH Women and to Feminist Project Conclusion INTRODUCTION Shark Tank is American version of a reality television format featuring entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas in orderto secure investment from a panel of venture capitalists. (1) Every episode of show consists of several pitches. In each pitch, an entrepreneur or a team of entrepreneurs (pitchers) presents an innovative business, seeking investment by one or more investors (sharks) out of a panel of five, in exchange for equity in presented business. All sharks are investing their own money, and successful pitches lead to deals that bring entrepreneurs not only capital, but also help of investing shark(s) with business connections and mentorship. Currently on its seventh season, show enjoys remarkable popularity. It has millions of viewers, (2) and in both 2014 and 2015 it won Emmy Award for Outstanding Structured Reality Program. Numerous avid fans who not only follow show but also write about it in a variety of mediums, including social media, further enhance its impact. (3) My sons are devoted viewers of Shark Tank. Since spending time with them is one of my biggest pleasures, I have joined ride. However, being a female law professor who teaches and writes about contracts and business associations for a living, what started as a family pastime has presented me with an intellectual puzzle that eventually became a scholarly endeavor. 1 found myself intrigued by show's idealization of entrepreneurship and perplexed with regard to role of women in this ideally portrayed world. In this Article, I treat episodes of Shark Tank as a social lab that produces an important cultural discourse. Of utmost importance to way I use show is fact that Shark Tank's makers have made clear that their aspiration is to promote idea of entrepreneurship by influencing culture surrounding it. As show's website announces: the critically-acclaimed reality show that has reinvigorated entrepreneurship in America, has also become a culturally defining series. (4) These deliberate efforts to influence culture combined with immense actual impact of Shark Tank allow a rare glimpse into construction of myth of entrepreneurship and myth's interplay with reality. The intentional idealization of entrepreneurship via medium of a television show and remarkable concrete success of Shark Tank can both be better understood, I argue, as part of a broader process: dissemination of neoliberalism. The goals of such a dissemination process go far beyond our economic world and belief in market economy. Rather, as Margaret Thatcher once said: [economics are method ... but object is to change soul. (5) But how can such changing of souls be achieved? As Wendy Brown has argued, neoliberal project utilizes many mediums through which it disseminates its logic beyond economy; (6) and, as I will argue next, Shark Tank is one such medium. With its focus on entrepreneurship, which is a key component of neoliberalism, show exposes masses of people to entrepreneurial logic in a simplified and enjoyable format. It is thus valuable to recognize that in doing so, Shark Tank operates as a mechanism through which neoliberalism gains access to people's souls and becomes common sense, thereby achieving hegemony. The effectiveness of mechanism is proved by Shark Tank's exceptional popularity, which demonstrates that neoliberal project has gone so deep that it has changed even way we are being entertained. …