Journal of Evolutionary Studies in Business

Voices of Entrepreneurial Women in Peru, 1980 - 2025

Beatriz Rodríguez-Satizábal — 2025-01-08

“Voices of Entrepreneurial Women in Peru, 1980-2025” is an ongoing interdisciplinary research project aiming to examine the entrepreneurial activities of women in Peru during the second globalization. This research note shares the answers of ten women to three questions on family, funding, and social responsibility. Also, it presents some insights and challenges that this topic and project pose for researchers, practitioners, and students interested in making women more visible in emerging economies. It brings a sample of women´s answers to share their voices and not to conclude on our findings.

Women as Economic Actors: New Sources, Theories, and Methods

Beatriz Rodríguez-Satizábal — 2025-01-08

Women, as economic actors, perform different activities in a myriad of contexts, while dealing with the expectations of their societies and organizations. Following the increasing number of studies about women, this special issue reflects on the nature and extent of the challenges posed by their activities in Argentina, China, Colombia, and Sri Lanka since the late 1970s. This special issue is a joint interdisciplinary effort to move forward with analyzing the changes and transformations of their economic and entrepreneurial activities.

From Dagongmei to Entrepreneurs: Unpacking the Emergence of Businesswomen in Shenzhen (1978–2000)

Yuan Jia Zheng — 2025-01-08

China's emergence as a global manufacturing leader has been well-documented, yet the role of Chinese women, particularly in private business activities, remains understudied. This paper explores the rise of female entrepreneurship during China’s economic reforms from 1978 to 2000, focusing on the special economic zone (SEZ) of Shenzhen, which became a hub for migrant female workers, known as Dagongmei (female workers). The central research question investigates how Dagongmei, despite facing challenging working conditions and gender inequality, transitioned from low-wage laborers to businesswomen within Shenzhen’s rapidly changing economic environment. This paper argues that, while these women endured unequal conditions, the open-market opportunities in Shenzhen motivated them to pursue further education and seek entrepreneurial ventures. A combination of macro- and microeconomic perspectives is used to analyze female labour participation in Shenzhen’s manufacturing sector, alongside social dimensions such as domestic responsibilities and educational backgrounds. The findings suggest that Shenzhen's business-friendly environment facilitated the emergence of a new class of businesswomen, contributing to China’s broader economic transformation. This study challenges prevailing narratives that view Dagongmei solely as victims of exploitation and instead highlights their role as active participants in shaping China’s entrepreneurial landscape.

Unveiling Entrepreneurial Identities: Perspectives from Women Entrepreneurs in the Global South

Pathiranage Padmali Manesha Peiris — 2025-01-08

Extant entrepreneurship literature presents a diverse and disjointed view of entrepreneurship. Among these ontological and epistemological debates, a prevailing theme is the argument around who qualifies to be identified as an entrepreneur. The use of western and masculine traits to define entrepreneurial characteristics continues to other both men and women who do not embody these characteristics, and are often categorised as underperformers. The traditional identities of men and women are intertwined with gender roles even today, resulting in a misleading representation of women entrepreneurs. The prevalent view of western women entrepreneurs as representative of all women ignores the sociocultural factors that shape how women in emerging economies engage in entrepreneurship. When women from emerging economies have been studied, overarching stereotypes surrounding their gendered role as mothers/wives/daughters and gendered understandings of women-owned businesses continue to present a very narrow understanding of women entrepreneurs from the global south. Drawing on the lived experiences of 44 women entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka, this study examines how entrepreneurship is conceptualised and the implications of these views on how women identify with and engage in entrepreneurship to contextualise women entrepreneurs in the global south.

Mind the Gap: How Media in Colombia Shapes the Gender Divide

Ana Pirela-Rios — 2025-01-08

In this paper, we analyze the content of press articles to identify gender biases in the language used by the digital media in Colombia. We employ modern text mining techniques to collect and analyze newspaper publications that mention gender-related keywords and study them in detail. We also address gender biases towards migrants by analyzing news articles related to Venezuelan immigrants using a gender approach. Our findings indicate that newspapers refer to women using words related to their role as caregivers, while using words related to insecurity and crime when discussing men. Although positive terms and feelings are common when referring to both genders, negative ones are more frequently used when mentioning males, often focusing on aggressive behavior and police arrests. Articles about Venezuelan migrants focus on their migratory process, welfare, and labor conditions. However, we find gender biases. Pieces about women migrants frequently discuss poverty and sexuality, while those about men focus on illegality. Our study highlights the need to pay more attention to gender biases in the media, particularly regarding migrant populations.

From eccentric to professional. The representation of women entrepreneurs in business magazines (Argentina, 1986-2010)

Magdalena Garmendia — 2025-01-08

In recent decades, studies on entrepreneurship and gender as well as on business history have made important advances in understanding women in business. On the one hand, pioneering studies on entrepreneurship and gender have demonstrated the historical underrepresentation of women entrepreneurs and also, recently, their increasing incorporation under supposedly empowering narratives. On the other hand, in the field of business history, gender studies have provided meaningful insights into the incorporation of women into management and corporate boards. However, there are still no studies that investigate how women entrepreneurs have been represented in Latin America. In dialogue with both fields of study and with the intention to overcome this gap, this article analyzes the representation of women entrepreneurs in the business press in Argentina between 1986 and 2010. Based on the theoretical framework of cultural sociology and following a qualitative methodological strategy, this study focuses on Apertura, a widely circulated business magazine in this country. The article shows that, although the representation of entrepreneurs remains predominantly male, since the mid-1990s there has been a significant change in the narratives through which women have been represented (from atypical to professional). This paper concludes that this narrative shift has allowed for greater visibility of women entrepreneurs and thus legitimized female entrepreneurship.