In the Wednesday Seminar on March 23, Ms. Lulu Li, Ph.D. candidate from Gender Studies Programme and the Department of Sociology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, shared her research on “Gendered Market Activities among Female Entrepreneurs in China: Case Study from Two Inland Provinces.”

Driven by the “Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation” campaign in China since 2016, the development and prosperity of private businesses and start-ups in China has brought unprecedented opportunities for female entrepreneurship. However, entrepreneurship has traditionally been androcentric, and the opportunities for entrepreneurship are unevenly distributed between inland and coastal regions. Against this backdrop, Ms. Li proposes the research question of “what are the motivations for female entrepreneurs to enter private business, and what kind of gendered opportunities and difficulties do they encounter when doing business in the local market”.

Drawing on 41 in-depth interviews with female entrepreneurs in small and medium cities, the research shows that for female entrepreneurs motivated by economic aspirations, some are “confident” to start the business with access to local resources and family support in a rising local market, while others are “aspiring” but lacking local networks and facing marriage stress. For females who become entrepreneurs due to family considerations, some of them try out new business opportunities “comfortably” with sufficient emotional and financial support, while others enter their business “serendipitously” in a familiar place because they want to realize their self-value and be filial at the same time. These findings imply that personal career aspirations and family concerns are key factors influencing the entrepreneurial motivations of women in inland cities. These women are adept at exploring different market opportunities and mobilizing multiple local resources to achieve business advancement and self-realization. Compared with women in developed regions, these inland women entrepreneurs who run businesses in a relatively conservative social environment have constructed their unique forms of entrepreneurship in which gender, class, and locality are intertwined.

Written by: ZHOU Siyuan, GU Yuxuan