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This paper explores the ways women entrepreneurs in male-dominated industries do identity work in order to gain legitimacy. In particular, we consider such identity work as a process being prompted by their direct environment, while demonstrating the gendered structural power relations in these women’s entrepreneurial contexts. We use a postfeminist lens to show how, in their quest for more legitimacy, they seem to be interpellated by postfeminist discourse.

We have used a narrative approach to show how women entrepreneurs in masculinised contexts do identity work to acquire legitimacy, and moreover use a postfeminist perspective to reflect on this identity work as to demonstrate how these Dutch businesswomen consider their agency in specific feminist terms within these men-dominated industry environments.

We present empirical data of ten women entrepreneurs in the Netherlands and how they discursively and subjectively make sense of their surrounding gendered contexts, in order to illustrate how local gender regimes and individual actions may conspire to constrain as well as stimulate these women’s entrepreneurship. By reflecting on three different ways of identity work through a postfeminist lens, we show how these women are interpellated by postfeminist discourses when trying to gain legitimacy.

The rather small sample does not allow us to generalise our findings to the whole population of women entrepreneurs in men-dominated contexts, yet this was not our goal anyway.

Such a reflection might help policy makers and such women themselves realise how, after all, gender inequality is still persistant in the entrepreneurship field and drawing on postfeminism does not necessarily help to support these women entrepreneurs' work–life balance.

Our findings underline the importance of a more gender inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem, in which women entrepreneurs in both masculinised ánd feminised sectors are seen and treated as legitimate entrepreneurs.

Postfeminism, to our knowledge, has hardly been applied to women entrepreneurs' experiences in men-dominated environments, and is in itself still a rather new field in entrepreneurship studies.

To evaluate the efficacy of a PRECEDE model-based educational program in enhancing awareness, attitudes and preventive behaviors against diabetes complications among rural patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

This quasi-experimental study included 160 T2DM patients from rural health centers in Andimeshk, Iran (2020–2021). Participants were randomly assigned to intervention (n = 80) or control (n = 80) groups. The intervention group received a six-session in-person educational program, supplemented by weekly lifestyle videos via WhatsApp over six weeks, guided by PRECEDE model constructs. A validated questionnaire assessed knowledge, attitudes, enabling and reinforcing factors, and preventive behaviors pre- and post-intervention.

Post-intervention, the intervention group demonstrated significantly (p < 0.001) higher mean scores in knowledge, attitudes, enabling factors, reinforcing factors and preventive behaviors than controls. Fasting blood sugar (FBS) levels were significantly (p < 0.001) reduced in the intervention group at three-month follow-up.

The findings demonstrate that a comprehensive program grounded in the PRECEDE model can significantly enhance patients’ awareness, strengthen positive attitudes, increase enabling and reinforcing factors and promote preventive lifestyle behaviors. Importantly, the intervention led to improved glycemic control, as evidenced by reduced fasting blood sugar levels at three-month follow-up. These results suggest that tailored, theory-driven educational initiatives have the potential to empower rural patients with type 2 diabetes to make sustainable lifestyle changes and better manage their condition. The study provides a model for developing and implementing effective diabetes self-management programs in underserved rural communities, which can ultimately contribute to reducing diabetes-related complications and improving overall health outcomes in this population.