The paradox of gender equality: an entrepreneurial case study from Sweden

International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship

Volumn 2, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 10-26

  Ahl, Helene ^a   Nelson, Teresa ^a   Bourne, Kristina A ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN EAU CLAIRE   (United States)

Author keywords

Entrepreneurialism; Equal opportunities; Gender; Small enterprises; Sweden; Women

Indexed keywords

EID: 79955936945     PISSN: 17566266     EISSN: 17566274     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1108/17566261011026529     Document Type: Article

References (61)

1. Acker, J. (1990), “Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: a theory of gendered organizations”, Gender & Society, Vol. 4, pp. 139-58.
2. Ahl, H.J. (2002), “The making of the female entrepreneur: a discourse analysis of research texts on women's entrepreneurship”, doctoral dissertation, Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, Jönköping.
3. Ahl, H.J. (2006), “Why research on women entrepreneurs needs new directions”, Entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice, Vol. 30 No. 5, pp. 595-621.
4. Allen, S. and Truman, C. (Eds) (1993), Women in Business: Perspectives on Women Entrepreneurs, Routledge, New York, NY.
5. Anderson, E.R. (2008), “‘Whose name's on the awning?’ Gender, entrepreneurship and the American diner”, Gender, Place and Culture, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 395-410.
6. Baines, S. and Wheelock, J. (2000), “Work and employment in small businesses: perpetuating and challenging gender traditions”, Work and Employment in Small Business, Vol. 7, pp. 45-56.
7. Berg, N.G. (1997), “Gender, place and entrepreneurship”, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Vol. 9, pp. 259-68.
8. Bergqvist, C. and Findlay, S. (1999), “Representing women's interests in policy process”, in Briskin, L. and Eliasson, M. (Eds), Women's Organizing and Public Policy in Canada and Sweden, McGill-Queen's University Press, London, pp. 119-46.
9. Björnberg, U. (2000), “Equality and backlash: family, gender, and social policy in Sweden”, in Haas, L.L., Hwang, P. and Russell, G. (Eds), Organizational Change and Gender Equity: International Perspectives on Fathers and Mothers at the Workplace, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 57-75.
10. Blake, M.K. and Hanson, S. (2005), “Rethinking innovation: context and gender”, Environment & Planning A, Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 681-701.
11. Bruni, A., Gherardi, G. and Poggio, B. (2004a), “Doing gender, doing entrepreneurship: an ethnographic account of intertwined practices”, Gender, Work and Organization, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 406-29.
12. Bruni, A., Gherardi, G. and Poggio, B. (2004b), Gender and Entrepreneurship: An Ethnographic Approach, Routledge, London.
13. Brush, C.G. (1992), “Research on women business owners: past trends, a new perspective and future directions”, Entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 5-30.
14. Brush, C.G. (1997), “Women-owned businesses: obstacles and opportunities”, Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 1-24.
15. Brush, C.G., de Bruin, A. and Welter, F. (2009), “A gender-aware framework for women's entrepreneurship”, International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 8-24.
16. Butler, J. (1990), Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Routledge, New York, NY.
17. Calás, M.B., Smircich, L. and Bourne, K.A. (2007), “Knowing Lisa? Feminist analyses of ‘gender and entrepreneurship’”, in Bilimoria, D. and Piderit, S.K. (Eds), Handbook on Women in Business and Management, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 78-105.
18. Calás, M.B., Smircich, L. and Bourne, K.A. (2009), “Extending the boundaries: reframing ‘entrepreneurship as social change’ through feminist perspectives”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 34 No. 3, pp. 552-69.
19. Carter, S. (1993), “Female business owners: current research and possibilities for the future”, in Allen, S. and Truman, C. (Eds), Women in Business: Perspectives on Women Entrepreneurs, Routledge, New York, NY, pp. 148-60.
20. Chell, E. and Baines, S. (1998), “Does gender affect business ‘performance’? A study of microbusinesses in business services in the UK”, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Vol. 10, pp. 117-35.
21. de Bruin, A., Brush, C.G. and Welter, F. (2007), “Advancing a framework for coherent research on women's entrepreneurship”, Entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 323-39.
22. Denzin, N.A. and Lincoln, Y.S. (2000), Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd ed., Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
23. Emerson, R.M., Fretz, R.I. and Shaw, L.L. (1995), Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
24. Equal Opportunity Ombudsman (2000), Tidningen Medborgaren, Equal Opportunity Ombudsman, Stockholm.
25. Gilligan, C. (1982), In a Different Voice, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
26. Goffee, R. and Scase, R. (1985), Women in Charge: The Experiences of Female Entrepreneurs, George Allen & Unwin, London.
27. Green, E. and Cohen, L. (1995), “‘Women's business’: are women entrepreneurs breaking new ground or simply balancing the demands of ‘women's work’ in a new way?”, Journal of Gender Studies, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 297-314.
28. Greer, M.J. and Greene, P.G. (2003), “Feminist theory and the study of entrepreneurship”, in Butler, J.E. (Ed.), New Perspectives on Women Entrepreneurs, Information Age, Greenwich, CT, pp. 1-24.
29. Haas, L. (1992), Equal Parenthood and Social Policy: A Study of Parental Leave in Sweden, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY.
30. Haas, L. and Hwang, C.P. (2008), “The impact of taking parental leave on fathers' participation in childcare and relationship with children: lessons from Sweden”, Community, Work & Family, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 85-104.
31. Hartmann, H. (1981), “The unhappy marriage of Marxism and feminism: towards a more progressive union”, in Sargent, L. (Ed.), Women and Revolution, South End Press, Boston, MA, pp. 1-41.
32. Hernes, H.M. (1987), Welfare State and Woman Power: Essays in State Feminism, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo.
33. Holmquist, C. (2001), Women's Entrepreneurship: FEM Research Program, available at: www.fsf.se/fem/FEM_Eng.pdf (accessed April 29), 2009.
34. Infoshop News (2009), “Sweden: feminism is part of the class struggle”, Infoshop News, available at: http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20090104145553752 (accessed April 29), 2009.
35. Jaggar, A.M. (1983), Feminist Politics and Human Nature, Rowand and Allanheld, Totowa, NJ.
36. KvinnoForum (2003), personal interview, March 20.
37. Lewis, P. (2006), “The quest for invisibility: female entrepreneurs and the masculine norm of entrepreneurship”, Gender, Work and Organization, Vol. 13 No. 5, pp. 453-69.
38. Marlow, S. (1997), “Self-employed women – new opportunities, old challenges?”, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 199-210.
39. Marlow, S. (2002), “Women and self-employment: a part of or apart from theoretical construct?”, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 83-91.
40. Marlow, S. and Strange, A. (1993), “Female entrepreneurs: success by whose standards?”, Leicester Business School Occasional Paper No. 11, Leicester Business School, De Montfort University, Leicester, pp. 1-16.
41. Mirchandani, K. (1999), “Feminist insight on gendered work: new directions in research on women and entrepreneurship”, Gender, Work, and Organization, Vol. 6 No. 4, pp. 224-35.
42. NUTEK: Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development (1996), Studies of Women's Entrepreneurship: A Research Program, Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development, Stockholm.
43. Palm, M. (2001), “Sweden best at gender equality?”, in Olson, L. (Ed.), Genus' Special Issue on Gender Equality Research, Vol. 2, Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research, Göteborg, pp. 3-4.
44. Platzer, E. (2006), “From private solutions to public responsibility and back again: the new domestic services in Sweden”, Gender and History, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 211-21.
45. Ray, R. (2008), A Detailed Look at Parental Leave Policies in 21 OECD Countries, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington, DC.
46. Rossman, G.B. and Rallis, S.F. (1998), Learning in the Field: An Introduction to Qualitative Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
47. Stastistika Centralbryån (2003), “Uttag av föräldrapenning och tillfäldrapenning 1974-2003 (“Use of parental leave and temporary parental leave 1974-2003”)”, available at: www.scb.se (accessed March 1), 2006.
48. Statistics Sweden (2008), Women and Men in Sweden: Facts and Figures 2008, Stastistika Centralbyrån, Stockholm.
49. Stetson, D.M. and Mazur, A.G. (Eds) (1995), Comparative State Feminism, Sage, London.
50. Strandh, M. and Boje, T.P. (2000-2003), “HWF survey: country survey reports”, in Wallace, C. (Ed.), Households, Work and Flexibility, Research Report No. 3, HWF Research Consortium, Vienna.
51. Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research (2001), Annual Report, Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research, Orebro.
52. Swedish Government (2007), Budget Bill, Swedish Government, Stockholm, available at: www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/8186/a/88569 (accessed June 2), 2009.
53. Swedish Government (2009a), Gender Equality, Swedish Government, Stockholm, available at: www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/4096 (accessed April 27), 2009.
54. Swedish Government (2009b), Gender Mainstreaming, Swedish Government, Stockholm.
55. Swedish Ministry of Industry, Employment, and Communications, and NUTEK (2001a), A Turning Point in Financing Women's Enterprise, Swedish Ministry of Industry, Employment, and Communications, and NUTEK, Stockholm.
56. Swedish Ministry of Industry, Employment, and Communications, and NUTEK (2001b), Women as Entrepreneurs in Sweden and the UK, Swedish Ministry of Industry, Employment, and Communications, and NUTEK, Stockholm.
57. Terjesen, S. (2004), “Female business owners: a review of the last decade of research”, paper presented at the Annual Academy of Management Meeting, New Orleans, LA, August.
58. West, C. and Zimmerman, D.H. (1987), “Doing gender”, Gender & Society, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 125-51.
59. Women's Business Research Institute (n.d.a), Andel kvinnor i börsbolagens styrelserand (Share of Women in Companies Listed on the Stock Market Boards), Wombri Förlag, Stockholm, available at: www.wombri.se/page.asp?cnt=0102&nav=01 (accessed April 29), 2009.
60. Women's Business Research Institute (n.d.b), Kvinnliga chefers befattningar 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006 och 2007 (Female Managers' Positions 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007), Wombri Förlag, Stockholm, available at: www.wombri.se/page.asp?cnt=010106&nav=0101 (accessed April 29), 2009.
61. Women's Business Research Institute (n.d.c), Kvinnliga företagare (Female Entrepreneurs), Wombri Förlag, Stockholm, available at: www.wombri.se/page.asp?cnt=0104&nav=01 (accessed April 29), 2009.