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Fashioning founders: Dress and gender in the entrepreneurial ecosystem

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  • Harriette Richards
  • Fabio Mattioli

Abstract

This article considers how entrepreneurs' fashion themselves as founders. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Australia, we discuss whether the informal dress codes of the startup world neutralize gender differences. Our findings suggest that informal dress codes reinforce the normative positionality of men as archetypal entrepreneurial actors. They reinscribe gendered hierarchies that affect the everyday entrepreneurial experience, and extend distinctly different allowances for nonconformity and unconventionality to men and women. Founders attempt to inhabit these gendered inequalities, performing a kind of esthetic labor that mobilizes their appearances to play into as well as counter the gendered expectations of the ecosystem and extract value from their personal and professional fashioning.

Suggested Citation

  • Harriette Richards & Fabio Mattioli, 2021. "Fashioning founders: Dress and gender in the entrepreneurial ecosystem," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 1363-1378, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:28:y:2021:i:4:p:1363-1378
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12641
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Guzman, Jorge & Kacperczyk, Aleksandra (Olenka), 2019. "Gender gap in entrepreneurship," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(7), pages 1666-1680.
    2. Malin Malmström & Jeaneth Johansson & Joakim Wincent, 2017. "Gender Stereotypes and Venture Support Decisions: How Governmental Venture Capitalists Socially Construct Entrepreneurs’ Potential," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(5), pages 833-860, September.
    3. Vishal K. Gupta & Daniel B. Turban & S. Arzu Wasti & Arijit Sikdar, 2009. "The Role of Gender Stereotypes in Perceptions of Entrepreneurs and Intentions to Become an Entrepreneur," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(2), pages 397-417, March.
    4. Lakshmi Balachandra & Tony Briggs & Kim Eddleston & Candida Brush, 2019. "Don’t Pitch Like a Girl!: How Gender Stereotypes Influence Investor Decisions," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(1), pages 116-137, January.
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