Title: Women entrepreneurs' work-family management strategies: a structuration theory study

Authors: April J. Spivack; Ashay Desai

Addresses: Department of Management and Human Resources, College of Business University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, 800 Algoma Blvd, Oshkosh, WI 54901-8675, USA ' Department of Management and Human Resources, College of Business University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, 800 Algoma Blvd, Oshkosh, WI 54901-8675, USA

Abstract: This research examines how women entrepreneurs are creating and recreating the gender structures that both restrict and enable methods for managing work and family demands. Specifically, we identify how entrepreneurial women have designed their businesses and structured their daily lives to mitigate work-family conflict. We develop a theoretical model identifying sites of tension for women as they navigate the work and family domains via a grounded theory approach. We offer implications for how gender, structuration, social cognitive, and border theories may be extended to understand entrepreneurial women's experiences.

Keywords: work-family balance; gender; entrepreneurship; structuration theory; agency theory; women entrepreneurs; female entrepreneurs; family demands; work demands; tension; social cognitive, theory; border theory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2016.073988

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2016 Vol.27 No.2/3, pp.169 - 192

Received: 14 Apr 2015
Accepted: 28 May 2015
Published online: 31 Dec 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article