Women and their stories: reason, sensibility and subjectivity in women entrepreneurship

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify the elements that allow understanding the subjectivity of women entrepreneurs according to González Rey's theory (2009). Subjectivity is a configuration of subjective senses originating from individual and social levels. Thus, a subjective constitution is formed by different forces that remain constantly changing throughout subjects' history. The methodology used to achieve the objective of this paper follows Qualitative Epistemology. This is a qualitative approach that uses a set of specific procedures specifically designed to reveal the indicators which form the subjective configuration. The results indicate that women's subjective entrepreneurship configuration rests on subjective meanings associated with the trajectories, context and culture within which the activity is developed. Entrepreneurship in this research appears as an individual characteristic that is formed in childhood. However, these women exist as entrepreneurs throughout their histories; especially when they have to deal with adverse conditions in the business world, which is seen as sexist. In this context, a company's opening is an event that strongly marks these women's histories, with a symbolic nature that becomes an integral part of their subjectivities. Similarly, the multiplicity of roles and competition between social spaces highlight how family interferes with business dynamics, as well as how businesses are present in the home. Also, the way they undertake entrepreneurial activities is delimited by the concrete conditions in which they lived / live.

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