Entrepreneurial feminism: reframing contemporary entrepreneurship education

Abstract

This editorial is a call to action to challenge several taken-for-granted assumptions in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education (EE), proposing a novel reorientation grounded in feminist values. We position the editorial at the intersection of entrepreneurial feminism and EE and begin to answer the question: How can entrepreneurial feminism advance contemporary EE? In doing so, we respond to the recent recommendation of Jones et al. (2025) to build feminist theory in entrepreneurship research. The editorial is also motivated by a need to clarify the theoretical foundation of entrepreneurial feminism (Lagrasta et al., 2024; Walker-Mohamed et al., 2024) and to reform entrepreneurship pedagogy through a feminist lens (Byrne and Fayolle, 2010; Berggren, 2020; Jones and Warhuus, 2018; Jones et al., 2025; Nabi et al., 2017; Pimpa, 2021).Entrepreneurial feminism is a practice-oriented theory that reconceptualizes entrepreneurship as a means for enabling gender justice, social change and equity-based economic empowerment (Lagrasta et al., 2024). Venture creation and development are framed as means through which individuals enact the feminist values of equity, social justice, care and ethics and as a means of enabling institutional transformations (Orser et al., 2011, 2013). We encourage readers to consider how entrepreneurial feminism can be deployed as a tool for expanding the boundaries of entrepreneurship research. We hope that the illustrative applications of entrepreneurial feminism, in the context of EE, will inform new pedagogy that engages diverse experiences and cultivates equitable learning environments. This intention assumes a need to better support enterprises that reflect feminist values and collective well-being. These include care work, cooperative business models and community-based and social enterprises.To inform the research question, we first describe our methodology. In considering the application of entrepreneurial feminism in the contemporary entrepreneurship classroom, feminist phenomenology (Oliveira et al., 2024) helps capture the authors' ontological dimensions (perspectives or aspects of being). Thus, we predicate our discussion below on our lived experiences and insights.Reflective journaling and discussion served as our primary data collection methods, capturing introspections, emotional responses and evolving interpretations throughout the writing and discussion process. Journaling enabled us to identify changes in viewpoints, track the evolution of ideas, identify and challenge power dynamics within the writing relationship and enhance the authenticity of the study process and findings. We had multiple online and in-person discussions and engaged in iterative essay writing. Each essay was discussed, and points were clarified or emphasized. The approach offered data to systematically examine our assumptions and embody experiences, including biases, positionality and other influences on the findings. Other artefacts that entered into the analysis included related authored articles and course syllabi. Common experiences were identified under the themes of identity, professional legitimacy, work-life navigation, gendered institutional cultures and emotional labor.Power dynamics between the authors were discussed at the outset of the project and throughout writing the editorial. We committed to transparency about individual concerns or issues that might arise. It was agreed upon that concerns should be raised quickly and dealt with. Throughout the writing process, we discussed how privilege and identity influence our respective work and how institutional pressures influence our research and teaching. No concerns regarding our working relationship or the project arose in the writing of the editorial.We draw on our shared insights in the next section to explain how the personal is academic, reframing the feminist phrase “the personal is political”. We then review the literature and advance six principles of entrepreneurial feminism. The co-constituted principles are foundational values that explain an approach to venture creation and development. An illustrative application of the principles is then made in the context of pedagogical values to underpin EE.We chose to apply the principles of entrepreneurial feminism in the context of EE for several reasons. First, we are both engaged in collaborative research on inclusive EE and have taught entrepreneurship in multiple cultural, industry and geographic contexts. Hence, it was a shared academic experience. Second, the context acknowledges foundational feminist scholars, such as bell hooks (2000, p. 21), who articulate that the responsibility of academics is to construct theory with application to many people, while concurrently demanding “respect for women's academic work, recognition of that work past and present, and an end to gender biases in curriculum and pedagogy.” The focus of EE has broad relevance, as many educational institutions offer entrepreneurship courses or programs. Finally, we assume the application is of interest to IJGE readers.In deconstructing entrepreneurship theory, we present implications of the principles and insights that guide the assessment of EE. The closing discussion focuses on ways to further integrate entrepreneurial feminism into gender and women entrepreneurship research.Multiple conversations about our respective lived experiences, the foci of academic inquiry and our love of teaching and advocacy motivated us to explore the principles of entrepreneurial feminism and its applicability to EE. This editorial captures shared reflections and insights about disrupting institutional norms through relational modes of action (advocacy and teaching) and by reshaping EE through an entrepreneurial feminist lens. This approach is possible because the person is political in academe. Our biographies are not incidental; they are central to the motivations for this editorial. Our lived experiences anchor the need for pedagogical reforms that reflect, validate and support diverse ways of knowing and being in research and teaching, particularly among those at the edges of “conventional” entrepreneurship scholarship (Ahl, 2006; Tapsell and Woods, 2010). Our respective 30-plus years of experience in research-intensive universities in Aotearoa – New Zealand, and Turtle Island – Canada, inform this editorial. We have both attained the rank of professor and been awarded endowed chairs in entrepreneurship. We have navigated complex identity matrices involving motherhood, caregiving, gendered expectations and non-traditional pathways to academic legitimacy.Our journeys of becoming tenured scholars are notwithstanding our career choices. For example, traditional productivity metrics, such as the number and rank of peer-reviewed publications, often marginalized our practice-based, equity-driven and community work. The latter is a form of academic service more likely to be pursued by feminist and women scholars (Ahl and Marlow, 2012). We have observed how “applied” feminist research, teaching and service are undervalued in career assessment criteria. This includes the ways in which some colleagues criticize feminist and gender-focused entrepreneurship research due to a perceived lack of academic rigor or relevance. Gendered institutional culture delegitimizes the very types of contributions upon which our teaching and advocacy have been built.However, a conundrum is not lost on us: we write of our success as tenured professors while highlighting how our work is delegitimized in the academy. We have each received support from our institution's leadership and other academic colleagues. We are grateful for the support. Yet we seek to emphasize that we have had to do “both”. We achieved success in the academy through peer-reviewed publications, grants and academic service, as well as through applied research and community engagement. Our concern is for other and next-generation researchers. Will they, too, have to engage in a double focus and workload to achieve career advancement?We seek to broaden definitions of academic success by recognizing the value of relational, practice-oriented, and equity-focused contributions. Included in the broadening of value is a recognition of the validity of often overlooked academic contributions of relational teaching and feminist research. We have made emotional investments in mentoring for students, faculty and industry colleagues. Within gendered education hierarchies, such contributions can be deemed of tertiary value compared to traditional outputs, such as academic publications (O'Connor, 2020). We recognize the lack of space for feminine and feminist voices in entrepreneurship, an academic discipline dominated by masculine norms and neoliberal assumptions. Rather than seeing feminist values as a “nice to have”, we endeavor to embrace the challenge of amplifying these values through scholarship, teaching, advocacy and leadership.Extending these insights to the focus of this editorial, entrepreneurial feminism is not an add-on to EE but a central tenet of pedagogy. Through dialog, care, narrative and connection, applying this feminist lens can attract and retain diverse learners while challenging how knowledge is produced, designed and delivered. By integrating these principles into EE, we endeavor to transform how and what we teach, as well as to extrapolate what is taught and how it is taught. This approach prioritizes methods of inquiry that empower students, recognize diverse identities and challenge dominant narratives in entrepreneurship. By doing so, we reclaim space for ourselves, for colleagues and for future scholars who may otherwise struggle in gendered institutional cultures.Finally, and from a methodological perspective, we sought to blend feminist theory with appreciative enquiry and feminist standpoint phenomenology in reflections on our academic journeys. These approaches share a commitment to relationality, storytelling, lived experience and social transformation. Storytelling, particularly through narrative inquiry, is a powerful tool of feminist strength and resistance. All three approaches embrace empathy, reflection, and solidarity. Feminism calls for systemic change based on justice and equity. Feminist phenomenology centers embodied, lived experiences as a foundation for academic curiosity. Appreciative enquiry supports the development of a theoretical framework grounded in exploring strengths and possibilities through the reflective use of generative questions (Woods and Lythberg, 2024). By asking generative questions of ourselves and reflecting on our experiences, we look to construct theoretical insights that foreground feminist principles of relationality, agency, care and collective empowerment. Drawing from this tripartite approach, an overview of entrepreneurial feminism is now presented.Entrepreneurial feminism positions entrepreneurship as a practice grounded in feminist values, identity and activism (Lagrasta et al., 2024). The conceptualization of entrepreneurial feminism emerged from informal conversations among Barbara and six women entrepreneurs in the late 2000s. Founders spoke about the need for social change, calling on their knowledge as caregivers, community champions, artisans and former employees to develop new products, new markets, new services and better processes. “Some were creating ‘by women, for women’ enterprises” (Orser and Elliott, 2015, p. 3). Building on these initial insights, formal fieldwork was undertaken, and the term entrepreneurial feminism was published in Orser et al. (2011) and Lagrasta et al. (2024). Feminist entrepreneurship is not, however, a new phenomenon. For example, the suffragette movement embodied entrepreneurial feminism (Mutch, 2022), as did feminist businesses and cooperatives that emerged in the 1960s (Harquail, 2019).Empirical studies explore the attributes of entrepreneurial feminists and how feminist values are enacted in venture creation and development. Harquail (2019) identifies entrepreneurial feminist attributes as equality, agency, whole humanness and interdependence. Based on a systematic review of literature, Lagrasta et al. (2024, p. 3105) define feminist entrepreneurs as “entrepreneurs who recognize men's and women's unequal conditions and act, manifestly or latently, to pursue gender equality (Ahl, 2004; Orser et al., 2013)” and entrepreneurial feminists as “change agents who exemplify entrepreneurial acumen in the creation of equity-based outcomes that improve women's quality of life and well-being through innovative products, services and processes.” Through a country-level review, Walker-Mohamed et al. (2024) report that entrepreneurial feminism on Turtle Island – Canada distinguishes “feminist” from “mainstream” or conventional entrepreneurship by the presence of a feminist mindset, principles and values and the aim to end sexism, exploitation and oppression (Walker-Mohamed et al., 2024, p. 9). Values are collective, inclusive (intersectional) and transformational. “Venture creation and development incorporates feminist business structures, culture, mission, governance, product or services” (Walker-Mohamed et al., 2024, p. 9).In response to foundational feminist scholars, we extend feminist theory within entrepreneurship and EE. Entrepreneurial feminism engages with intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989) by seeking to account for identity factors (such as race, gender, class and Indigenous versus settler status) that differentially influence venture creation and development (e.g. perceived legitimacy of founder/firm, sector choice and access to resources and markets). Critical race theory informs entrepreneurial feminism by revealing how racialized systems of entrenched power advantage some through accepted business norms and commercial practices. In line with the emerging field of Indigenous entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial feminism challenges dominant entrepreneurial assumptions and norms that entrench colonial and patriarchal power by acknowledging and valuing diverse knowledge and practices (Woods et al., 2022). Similarly, entrepreneurial feminism challenges assumptions about “neutral” entrepreneurial ecosystems (e.g. commercial markets and educational institutions) that underpin venture creation and development. Illustrative applications include expanding what constitutes value (e.g. enhanced well-being of others and solidarity among the community), extending typologies of enterprise (e.g. social and hybrid enterprises and cooperative businesses) and enhancing power through resourcing (e.g. lending circles and investment in Indigenous-owned enterprises).While scholars agree that entrepreneurial feminism is one means to challenge economic and social structures not made for women and gender-diverse people, not all feminist entrepreneurs enact feminist values in venture creation and development. Take the case of a feminist entrepreneur who owns a donut operation. This founder may identify as a woman. Her political identity may be feminist. She may perceive herself to be an entrepreneur. However, the donut operation does not incorporate feminist values within market positioning, relationships, governance, leadership or the organizational structure.Building on this literature and our respective research, we define entrepreneurial feminism as a relational, equity-centered framework that positions entrepreneurship as (1) a feminist act, leveraging opportunities to trade and innovate, and (2) as a means to enhance personal agency and well-being and to dismantle gendered ecosystem structures. The co-constitutive principles of entrepreneurial feminism incorporate an orientation to entrepreneurship that:Entrepreneurial feminism therefore recognizes venture creation and development as a site of gendered power relations and social change. Entrepreneurial feminism is temporal, cultural and geopolitically specific. It aligns opportunity recognition and realization within social justice, cultural continuity, financial sustainability and intergenerational well-being. These co-constituted principles reject dominant masculinized and individualistic frameworks to provide a feminist reimagining of entrepreneurship founded on more relational, contextual, culturally grounded and equity-focused approaches. Table 1 presents the principles of entrepreneurial feminism in the context of entrepreneurship theory.Entrepreneurial feminism offers a lens for reframing EE. The paradigm integrates economic and relational frameworks through context-sensitive learning approaches. We see equity-oriented education in assessment frameworks that attend to access to resources, gender-informed content, delivery and economic empowerment outcomes (Orser et al., 2013; Orser et al., 2023). Entrepreneurial feminism challenges structural and cultural inequalities that shape EE ecosystems while prioritizing inclusive, equitable and socially aligned approaches to learning (Orser and Elliott, 2015; Ahl and Marlow, 2012). Rather than “adding more women” into programming, entrepreneurial feminism interrogates the underlying assumptions and values that inform EE discourse and pedagogy. EE, predicated on the principles of entrepreneurial feminism and constituted by a set of pedagogical values, moves beyond individualist models of the entrepreneur to create participatory and socially conscious learning environments, spaces diverse voices and experiences are and reform is as traditional EE can masculinized and neoliberal of who is and is not an entrepreneur and what entrepreneurial journeys (Woods et al., Jones and Warhuus, 2018; Jones and that EE through pedagogical approaches and for entrepreneurial identities that conventional attributes of venture creation and development on and These attributes with that emphasize market and economic success as primary of entrepreneurship and we such attributes with or masculine entrepreneurial narratives et al., attributes can other of entrepreneurship, particularly for women and learners from marginalized (Ahl and Marlow, and These include those who social sustainability and community outcomes that many women entrepreneurs value et al., attributes are in entrepreneurship by predicated on the of a an and focus on business and can further and community-based of entrepreneurship. by research, we need new narratives and to EE, including the of care work, relational and these from to entrepreneurial We need to better embrace as in entrepreneurial the to build and support and multiple with these the and the empowerment of women and including in economic Entrepreneurial feminism by the entrepreneurial opportunities and structural and women advance this creating educational women's values, practices and contributions are and Illustrative applications of entrepreneurial feminism in the context of EE this we share of several ways that we integrate entrepreneurial feminism in pedagogy (Orser and Elliott, 2022). For illustrative we now focus on masculinized that theory to incorporate diverse lived experiences to further possibilities within course and the course in a for inclusive and and outcomes (e.g. case and that incorporate care work and community-based entrepreneurship and that success as social practices and well-being. reflective positionality or examine how their identities shape entrepreneurial learners to about and relational to how gender, race, class and with access to collaborative or cooperative learning (e.g. and to challenge individualist entrepreneurs of and Within the of entrepreneurial on the individual and relational entrepreneurship, and community et al., entrepreneurial motivations of care work, social and cultural continuity, in to learners to consider how structural (e.g. and systemic shape entrepreneurial (Ahl, the that “neutral” are and that learners to how their venture marginalized gender in investment practices and (e.g. et al., such as community-based cooperative or to such as entrepreneurship, or community structural within entrepreneurial ecosystems (e.g. on how and within and through and reflective discussion to space for marginalized than dominant or lived experience as knowledge and seek to validate personal and cultural as contributions to discussions and venture the business on iterative and multiple to not investment an Entrepreneurial Feminism by the six co-constitutive pedagogical for curriculum and of and The framework and illustrative practices exemplify how principles of entrepreneurial feminism can enhance theory and lived it is that the principles are not Similarly, entrepreneurial feminism is not to other feminist It is our hope that the illustrative practices readers to about ways to EE and EE feminism is a and framework to advance entrepreneurship theory and to entrepreneurial practices (Lagrasta et al., 2024). is to the of entrepreneurial feminism and other feminist within entrepreneurship studies on entrepreneurial feminism have personal empowerment and success the that one can achieve gender equality through personal than through collective political and social change (Lagrasta et al., 2024). is to how entrepreneurial feminism is enacted within gendered entrepreneurial This includes of practice in the industry and lived experiences that other entrepreneurship scholars institutional and the of and feminist support and are to further academic research and service with entrepreneurial feminism. to of through collaborative and can this and advance collective entrepreneurial feminist For example, research on of practice that focus on entrepreneurship from a feminist might examine structures and editorial that shape knowledge and influence career or Similarly, research is to sector of practice that are in feminist likely include advocacy and might explore how such knowledge access and among women and gender-diverse This includes the ways in which relational shared values and collective identity to venture creation and development. In the context of EE, case studies are to and solidarity within that seek to the of women and gender-diverse individuals in entrepreneurship and For illustrative such include The and in Canada, in New and in Canada and New should programming, outcomes and how feminist values are into This includes how and as institutional within gendered entrepreneurial and for change. and might how and cultures the of feminist entrepreneurial support Finally, for research at the intersection of entrepreneurial feminism and For example, studies on and services on and women's and might explore how or the of women to their for future research predicated on the principles of entrepreneurial feminism are in Table such as and Indigenous have about the need for business et al., 2024). such as the of and in educational institutions of have including feminist entrepreneurship research. the need for to extend the principles and applications of entrepreneurial feminism in theory and