A dynamic gender-barriers framework to women’s entrepreneurship: A competency-based perspective

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a new dynamic gender-barriers framework that aims to provide an updated, layered, and contextualized view of barriers and seeks to further a holistic understanding of women’s entrepreneurship and its evolution. Barriers can be created, developed, or removed, in different areas and at different levels, changing over time. Gender barriers can overlap and cross different levels of analysis, and the removal or strengthening of a barrier can have a domino effect on other elements, generating unintended negative consequences, or creating synergies. This work focuses attention on individual barriers, related to a lack of specific competencies, and offers recommendations to practitioners, policy makers, and ecosystem supporters on how to effectively contribute to the competency development of women entrepreneurs. Strategies and policies to develop the competencies, through experiential entrepreneurship programs and executive coaching initiatives, can produce a ripple effect across different layers of society, contributing to reduce the gender gap.

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© 2022 International Council for Small Business

KEYWORDS:

• Gender-barriers framework
• women entrepreneurs’ competencies
• competency-based approach

Disclosure statement

The author reports there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

¹ The name “5by5” is borrowed from the military. The communication signal quality is reported on two scales from 1 to 5: strength (1st number) and clarity (2nd number). Five by five therefore means a signal which has excellent strength and perfect clarity. The aim of this framework is to be the most understandable “signal” possible.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship [No 892825].