Self-Made Women Entrepreneurs: How Does the Exception Reproduce Entrepreneurial Success?

This article studies how the entrepreneurial success narrative of the exception reproduces gender inequality in entrepreneurship. Drawing on the Bourdieusian framework of the exception to the social reproduction norm according to which women are disadvantaged in the masculine field of entrepreneurship, we explore how women entrepreneurs who seemingly lack the necessary resources become successful entrepreneurs. We conducted 28 biographical interviews with self-made women entrepreneurs, in France. The findings show how they embrace the exception as part of their entrepreneurial narrative, mobilizing strategically gender bias to sustain their entrepreneurial success. Three mechanisms of the exception narrative are identified: learning, branding and differentiating. Each mechanism acts as a proxy for capital endowment by creating and hiding capitals to succeed in the entrepreneurial field. In embracing the exception, self-made women reproduce gender inequalities by perpetuating a masculine norm of entrepreneurial success despite not being gender blind. The article contributes to the scholarship on gender equality and entrepreneurial success. First, we extend the traditional explanations of underdog entrepreneurs' success by showing how such successes are anchored in material resources. Second, we underline how the strategic use of the narrative of exception by self-made women entrepreneurs perpetuates postfeminist discourses and sustains gender inequalities in entrepreneurship. Third, we extend Bourdieusian studies in entrepreneurship by showing how the conditions of exception reinforce social reproduction and gender inequalities in entrepreneurship.