Female Ethnicity: Understanding Muslim Immigrant Businesswomen in The Netherlands

• Published in: Gender, work, and organization Vol. 17; no. 3; pp. 320 - 339
• Main Authors: Essers, Caroline, Benschop, Yvonne, Doorewaard, Hans
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-05-2010
• Subjects: Cultural differences; Entrepreneurship; Ethnicity; female ethnicity; Females; Femininity; Immigrants; Intersectionality; Islamic culture; Muslims; Netherlands; Noncitizens; Social identity; Studies; Women; Women workers; Working Women; Netherlands
• ISSN: 0968-6673; 1468-0432
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0432.2008.00425.x

Building on theories of intersectionality, in this article we develop the concept of female ethnicity in order to understand the meanings of femininity for Muslim immigrant businesswomen in the context of entrepreneurship. Through the notion of female ethnicity we analyse four life stories and illustrate the tensions these women encounter because of the interlaced working of gender and ethnicity as social categories of exclusion. In addition, we highlight the strategies that they develop in order to cope with these tensions. These analyses, we argue, contribute to conceptualizations of entrepreneurship that do justice to complex and contradictory processes of identity constructions.