Funding Agency: British Academy
Date: 2012-2013
Principal Investigator: Dr Patricia Lewis
This project explores the emergence of the ‘mumpreneur’ as a new entrepreneurial identity and the social organization of her entrepreneurial activities. The ‘mumpreneur’ is characterised by a double entanglement, that is, the incorporation of both feminist and non-feminist themes.
In the realms of entrepreneurship this translates into women’s movement back into the home to care for children as a matter of choice not obligation while at the same time using the domestic sphere as the location for their entrepreneurial activities.
Based on 21 in-depth interviews the project investigates women’s reaction to the notion of the ‘mumpreneur’. Interestingly there is significant variation in responses to and take-up of this entrepreneurial identity with a number of respondents expressing a reluctance to apply it to themselves. The project also investigates how the discourses of motherhood and entrepreneurship influence the entrepreneurial and mothering activities of this group highlighting how women participate in these discourses though they exist outside the realm of their everyday lives.