Entreprenørskap og kjønn : en kunnskapsreise mellom to perspektiver: fra individ til relasjon

Sammanfattning: The subject of this study is entrepreneurship and gender, and the research question addressed is: What meaning has gender for entrepreneurship? Through a "journey of learning" the issue of entrepreneurship and gender is examined with two perspectives; the individual- and the relational perspective. This implies that the entrepreneur is studied with a mainstream entrepreneurship approach as well as a socioeconomic inspired ap­proach where embeddedness is a crucial concept. The doctoral dissertation consists of three studies of the entrepreneurial process, and one study where the entrepreneur is viewed as a participant in a household as well as in a firm; hence he/she is socially embedded. The thesis is based on a broad empirical material and represents a methodological diversity. Doing studies with different perspectives and approaches contribute to a diversified under­standing of entrepreneurship. In this understanding gender is crucial and in the disserta­tion two different approaches to gender are applied. The dissertation demonstrates the interconnection between gender and research on entrepreneurship; from one point of view where similarities and differences between men and women are important, to an­other point of view where gender is perceived as socially constructed. One main conclusion is that entrepreneurship is gendered and this needs to be taken into account when entrepreneurial research is conducted.