A web of opportunity or the same old story? Women digital entrepreneurs and intersectionality theory
This article critically analyses the manner in which intersectionality and related social positionality shape digital enterprise activities. Despite popular claims of meritocratic opportunity enactment within traditional forms of entrepreneurship, ascribed social characteristics intersect to influen...
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| Format: | Article |
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Sage Publications
2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33316/ |
| _version_ | 1848794604795592704 |
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| author | Martinez Dy, Angela Carmina Marlow, Susan Martin, Lee |
| author_facet | Martinez Dy, Angela Carmina Marlow, Susan Martin, Lee |
| author_sort | Martinez Dy, Angela Carmina |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This article critically analyses the manner in which intersectionality and related social positionality shape digital enterprise activities. Despite popular claims of meritocratic opportunity enactment within traditional forms of entrepreneurship, ascribed social characteristics intersect to influence the realisation of entrepreneurial potential. However, it is purported that the emerging field of digital entrepreneurship may act as a ‘great leveller’ due to perceived lower barriers to entry, disembodiment of the entrepreneurial actor and the absence of visible markers of disadvantage online. Using an interpretivist approach, we analyse empirical evidence from UK women digital entrepreneurs which reveals how the privileges and disadvantages arising from intersecting social positions of gender, race and class status are reproduced online. This analysis challenges the notion that the Internet is a neutral platform for entrepreneurship and supports our thesis that offline inequality, in the form of marked bodies, social positionality and associated resource constraints, is produced and reproduced in the online environment. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:18:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-33316 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:18:50Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Sage Publications |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-333162020-05-04T17:55:45Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33316/ A web of opportunity or the same old story? Women digital entrepreneurs and intersectionality theory Martinez Dy, Angela Carmina Marlow, Susan Martin, Lee This article critically analyses the manner in which intersectionality and related social positionality shape digital enterprise activities. Despite popular claims of meritocratic opportunity enactment within traditional forms of entrepreneurship, ascribed social characteristics intersect to influence the realisation of entrepreneurial potential. However, it is purported that the emerging field of digital entrepreneurship may act as a ‘great leveller’ due to perceived lower barriers to entry, disembodiment of the entrepreneurial actor and the absence of visible markers of disadvantage online. Using an interpretivist approach, we analyse empirical evidence from UK women digital entrepreneurs which reveals how the privileges and disadvantages arising from intersecting social positions of gender, race and class status are reproduced online. This analysis challenges the notion that the Internet is a neutral platform for entrepreneurship and supports our thesis that offline inequality, in the form of marked bodies, social positionality and associated resource constraints, is produced and reproduced in the online environment. Sage Publications 2016-06-21 Article PeerReviewed Martinez Dy, Angela Carmina, Marlow, Susan and Martin, Lee (2016) A web of opportunity or the same old story? Women digital entrepreneurs and intersectionality theory. Human Relations . ISSN 0018-7267 Digital digital enterprise entrepreneurship gender Internet intersectionality online business online entrepreneurship whitewashing women http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/06/21/0018726716650730 doi:10.1177/0018726716650730 doi:10.1177/0018726716650730 |
| spellingShingle | Digital digital enterprise entrepreneurship gender Internet intersectionality online business online entrepreneurship whitewashing women Martinez Dy, Angela Carmina Marlow, Susan Martin, Lee A web of opportunity or the same old story? Women digital entrepreneurs and intersectionality theory |
| title | A web of opportunity or the same old story? Women digital entrepreneurs and intersectionality theory |
| title_full | A web of opportunity or the same old story? Women digital entrepreneurs and intersectionality theory |
| title_fullStr | A web of opportunity or the same old story? Women digital entrepreneurs and intersectionality theory |
| title_full_unstemmed | A web of opportunity or the same old story? Women digital entrepreneurs and intersectionality theory |
| title_short | A web of opportunity or the same old story? Women digital entrepreneurs and intersectionality theory |
| title_sort | web of opportunity or the same old story? women digital entrepreneurs and intersectionality theory |
| topic | Digital digital enterprise entrepreneurship gender Internet intersectionality online business online entrepreneurship whitewashing women |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33316/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33316/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33316/ |