Women's Entrepreneurial Realities in the Czech Republic and the United States: Gender Gaps, Racial/Ethnic Disadvantages, and Emancipatory Potential

Women entrepreneurs are not a homogenous group, intersectional approaches are essential to grasp how multiple dimensions of entrepreneurs’ social identities converge to frame opportunities. Our study focuses on the experiences and ambitions of small, purposively-selected samples of women business owners from two countries – the United States (US) and Czech Republic (CR). A combined contextual embeddedness/intersectional approach to entrepreneurship suggests that interwoven dimensions of identities position entrepreneurs differentially in relation to the structural context in which they are located, including variations in historical patterns, national policies, market conditions, and normative regimes. We illustrate how hierarchical structures shape life chances and business practices and demonstrate that a gender-aware approach alone is insufficient for understanding women’s entrepreneurship.