Critical Perspectives on Creative Women’s Entrepreneurship
Keywords: research, foresight, creative workers, women & marginalized gendered people, participatory design research, center for emerging artists and designers
The report Critical Perspectives on Creative Women’s Entrepreneurship is the outcome of research build research Guided by OCAD U’s Dr. Alia Weston and the Center for Emerging Artists and Designer’s Alex Hong. This research incorporated the participatory research series “Good w/Food dinner series”, interviews with creative women and folks of marginalized gender identities, environment scans, and local case studies. The knowledge was created as part of the Government of Canada's Women's Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH)
Excerpt from “Critical Perspectives on Creative Women’s Entrepreneurship”:
This research offers new insights into the unique experiences that creative women and individuals of marginalized genders face on their journey with entrepreneurship. The Good w/ Food dinner series created a space for creative women to come together over dinner to share their stories and foster connections with other creative women. By mapping the entrepreneurial ecosystem, we were able to highlight creative resources and organizations that are dedicated to creating community-oriented and women-centric programming. Creative women and individuals of marginalized genders who, to varying degrees, participate in entrepreneurship identified the desire for resources and supports that allow them to create meaningful connections through sharing stories and lived experiences. Participants also indicated that traditional entrepreneurship often discourages their self-identification as creative entrepreneurs. As a result, this led to the conclusion that we should begin to explore alternative models of entrepreneurship.
This research offers a critical examination of the systemic shortcomings of traditional entrepreneurship programming since entrepreneurship literature and practice continue to be dominated by men and masculine archetypes. The purpose of this research is not to create a binary of men’s entrepreneurship and women’s entrepreneurship, but instead, offer insights into the different ways that all genders participate in entrepreneurship. Through the WEKH network at OCAD University, the CEAD is applying the insights gathered from this research into the development of programming that is representative of the needs of creative women entrepreneurs. This research also advocates for more inclusive entrepreneurship programming beyond OCAD University.
Full report available on OCAD U’s Open Research Repository