A Narrative Based Portrayal of the Financial Situation of Women Entrepreneurs : A Socially Constructed Reality

Abstract: There has been a rapid increase in the number of women entrepreneurs during the last decade. Yet, the number is still rather low why the Swedish Government is performing encouraging efforts. The encouragement of female‟s entrepreneurship is a necessity since women account for a rather new group of entrepreneurs who contributes to the growth of the economy. For most entrepreneurs, the success or failure depends on the ability to create a network of support and access to external capital. Previous research has shown that women entrepreneurs have a harder time to access external capital. These researchers have, however, mostly focused on individual traits and through these explained the financial situation of women entrepreneurs. This research, on the contrary, adopts a sociological research perspective where the everyday experiences of women entrepreneurs are emphasized. The purpose of this study is to understand and describe the financial situations faced by women entrepreneurs within the region of Jönköping. This will be achieved by examining the women‟s experiences in asking for banks‟ capital and the perceptions of the banks in supplying the capital. The study takes on an ethnomethodological research approach and applies a narrative data collection method. Due to the adopted ethnomethodological perspective, the study engages in the mapping of the everyday reality of the researched participants. The narrative data collection method allows the participants to express their stories and experiences. On the basis of an a priori model, the narratives were systematically studied and the financial situation of women entrepreneurs analyzed. The study applies a micro- and a macro analysis under which narratives of two different structures are examined. The micro analysis takes account of the narratives produced by the researched participants without involving any theory. It is found that the women entrepreneurs‟ narratives are more varied and action-oriented whereas the narratives of banks are more conformative and gen-eral. The macro analysis puts the narratives into a broader framework by in-volving both earlier research and a theory developed by Bourdieu. This analysis contributes to an understanding of that the social setting affects the structure, rules and norms of the entrepreneurial field. This may act as hin-ders for women entrepreneurs in terms of accessing capital, networking and overall feeling exhorted to be entrepreneurs. Hence, the reality of women entrepreneurs can be argued to be socially constructed where the women are unfairly seen through influenced eyes.