Female Entrepreneurs of Moroccan and Turkish Origin in the Netherlands.

Abstract

Ethnic minority entrepreneurship is predominantly male. However, more and more examples of female ethnic minority entrepreneurs are documented, particularly in the UK, who have been successful in establishing a business in a still highly patriarchal world of migrant entrepreneurs (Westwood & Bhachu, 1987). In the Netherlands, 25 % of all ethnic minority entrepreneurs are female (Poutsma & van den Tillaart, 1998). Yet, little is known about how they perceive their socio-economic environment and the way they construct their identities. The objective of our study is therefore to contribute to theory development revolving the identity construction of Female Entrepreneurs of Moroccan and Turkish Origin’s (hereafter called femtos). Consequently, our research explores how femtos construct a more or less coherent self-identity out of their various shifting multiple social identifications. By doing so, we will focus on the ambiguities of femtos’ multiple identity construction and the dilemma’s that emerge from these. We will additionally study how femtos reconcile these identity-related dilemma’s. The purpose of this paper is to develop a tentative conceptual framework concerning the ongoing and changing multiple identity construction of femtos. The concepts of the dialogical self and multiple identity are being used in order to gather ‘situated knowledge’ (Haraway, 1991) on these entrepreneurs. Therefore, eight femtos were interviewed and asked to describe their lives through ‘life-chapters’ (McAdams, 1993; Buitelaar, 2002). All of these interviews were thoroughly analyzed, and four of them are used for this paper. Confronting and comparing theoretical notions with this empirical material has lead to a description of five themes or social practices which were brought forward in these narratives. This pilot-study has resulted in a first conceptualization of the representation of femtos’ multiple identities. This conceptualization will serve as a guideline for further research.