Pivoting and positionality: entrepreneurship, care, and the Covid-19 pandemic in Czechia and the U.S.A.

Our research reveals how family and business pivot opportunities and decisions are intertwined and shaped by respondent social positionality in two country contexts—the USA and Czechia. Our findings underline the need for intersectional, contextual, and comparative analyses as they relate to positionality and entrepreneurship generally as well as to specific women SEBOs’ Covid-19 survival strategies. We offer policy insights for supporting women as diverse SEBOs, with a specific focus on crises influencing both the economy and families, and on post-crisis recovery. The long closures during Covid-19 made visible the problematic care infrastructure in the USA and Czechia, and highlighted how women’s acceptance of increased care demands challenged their business ownership. State business assistance programmes were not sensitive to the gendered needs of SEBOs in either country. They were slow, and eligibility was unclear, especially for immigrants.