Libro de Actas final_2

GT 13 GRUPO DE TRABAJO DE SOCIOLOGÍA DE LA EDUCACIÓN
2. Projects and motivations for entrepreneurship: discourses and meanings
In this item, the focus of our analysis is to attempt to show the rich sources of how people describe their projects and
motivations for entrepreneurship by gender and educational field. These discourses and meanings somehow seem to
capture both the diversity of ways of being entrepreneurial and the underlying meanings (McElwee, 2008) and the very
rich descriptive data of what people mean when they talk about entrepreneurship.
By the analysis of the discourses regarding the projects and motivations for self-employment makes it possible to
identify important segmentation factors in relation to the entrepreneurial potential as an intention of start a venture or
self-employment. Indeed, the education field and gender appear as key variables to explain differentiated behavior’s in
regards to entrepreneurship (Marques & Moreira, 2011a). Thus, we have observed how the creation of self-employment
is understood by some of our male interviewees as an opportunity for personal and professional growth. Expressions such
as “achievement”, “taking risks” or “improving life” appear in their discourses about the projects and motivations that
lead them to consider advancing with their business projects. In contrast, the women use arguments such as “the difficulty
in finding a job”, “the only alternative for work” or “fear to advance with a project”, sentences that suggest that, in some
ways, the choice for entrepreneurship is seen as a strategy to avoid unemployment. We will now examine some narratives
in which we found the differentiated meanings and representations of entrepreneurship by gender and educational field:
“I can give several reasons to advance, but none are a matter of employability. It is really for
enjoyment (…) I’m just not able to teach, I can do other things, I have a talent for that (…)”
(John, 28 years old, Education).
“(...) Look ... I’d like, for example, to start-up a FTA Leisure Centre (Free Time Activities), or
a kindergarten. For now, because I really love children... and I think it is increasingly difficult
to find employment (...) and I am going to have a son and I know it is increasingly difficult to
find a kindergarten, for example” (Mary, 29 years old, Social Sciences).
John’s clearly sees entrepreneurship as a path for personal achievement. The interviewee, bearing a degree in Education
field, aims to exercise a professional activity that presents him with new challenges. In the second case, Mary’s have a
degree in the social sciences field and shows us some uncertainty towards her professional future. The decision of the
interviewee - to create a kindergarten - is explained not only by her difficulty finding a job in the field she studied, but also
by the possibility of taking care of a son she is expecting. It is interesting to notice here that we are looking at a decision/
choice in which, from a sociological point of view, the gender variable takes particular importance. In the distribution
of family responsibilities, taking care of the children is regarded by the women as their “natural” accepted obligation.
The domestic space, for example, sees the reproduction and, not infrequently, the reinforcement of a symbolical order
characterized by masculine domination, which is reproduced by means of incorporation by both genders of values, attitudes
and representations that are transmitted to them throughout the socialization process (Perista, 2010). The dilution of the
frontiers between the domestic/family space and the productive/professional space contributes to gender inequalities and
presents itself to women as a particularly constraining factor to their socioprofessional options and projections.
The creation of self-employment/company is recognized by interviewees as a winding path that is not free from risks and
uncertainty, despite their different representations about obstacles/constraints that appear throughout the process. It is thus
plausible to conceptualize risk not only as a socially constructed phenomenon (Beck, 1992), but also as a logic of thought
that conditions the existence of individuals as something unpredictable, since individuals are not always sufficiently
secure that individual choices and decisions will bring them potential failure or undesired effects. The choice for selfemployment
or the creation of a business is a good example, as shown in the two testimonials that follow:
“These are issues of funding, to attract new customers, validation of our products and
distinguish them from the competition, issues of price, because there is some unfair
competition in these technical services... essentially...” (Peter, 27 years old, Engineering).
“I think that when a woman presents herself (in the business world) and, in quotation marks,
wants to assume leadership like a man ... people are more receptive to a man than a woman,
I think this stereotype is still accepted broadly in society however, there have been changes
and mentalities will change” (Helen, 25 years old, Education).
The first quote regards the situation of a young engineer who is considering the initial phase of implementation of a business
and market competition as the main factors that may condition the success of his business project. The impediments
highlighted are connected to his objective conditions of development and project implementation of the business idea.
As demonstrated in the last quote, gender stereotypes and the obstacles to entrepreneurship inevitably cross. When Helen’s
pointing out the barriers that woman face in entrepreneurial activity, the testimonial of this young Education graduate
recognizes, from the outset, the predominance of a masculine and patriarchal domination in the corporate field.
Both discourses present empirical evident that suggest that social representations about the entrepreneurial career and its
obstacles are still based on stereotyped models of the roles exercised by men and women in the business world. Here, as
well, the gender variable appears to have an important bearing.
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CRISIS Y CAMBIO: PROPUESTAS DESDE LA SOCIOLOGÍA
XI Congreso Español de Sociología (FES)