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Article
Publication date: 8 July 2022

Sara Lindström, Heli Ansio and Tytti Steel

This study identifies how self-employed older women experience and represent self-integrity – an element and source of meaningfulness – in their work, and how these experiences…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study identifies how self-employed older women experience and represent self-integrity – an element and source of meaningfulness – in their work, and how these experiences are intertwined with gendered ageing.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used thematic analysis, influenced by an intersectional lens, to scrutinise qualitative data generated during a development project, with ten over 55-year-old self-employed women in Finland.

Findings

The study reveals three dominant practices of self-integrity at work: “Respecting one's self-knowledge”, “Using one's professional abilities”, and “Developing as a professional”. Older age was mostly experienced and represented as a characteristic that deepened or strengthened the practices and experiences of self-integrity at work. However, being an older woman partly convoluted that. Self-integrity as a self-employed woman was repeatedly experienced and represented in contrast to the male norm of entrepreneurship.

Originality/value

The authors contribute to the literature on gender and entrepreneurship by highlighting the processual dimensions – how integrity with self is experienced, created and sustained, and how being an older woman relates to self-integrity in self-employment. The results show a nuanced interplay between gender and age: Age and gender both constrain and become assets for older women in self-employment through older women's experiences of self-integrity.

Details

International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, vol. 14 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-6266

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