Purpose

This paper aims to explore the extent to which women’s entrepreneurship in conflict zones is an influential catalyst for liberalising traditionally conservative gender norms. This purpose is achieved by focussing on women entrepreneurs in Gaza and how they actively renegotiate their multiple gender roles and navigate the social order through entrepreneurship.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper adopts the interpretivist approach where individual in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 Palestinian women entrepreneurs operating in Gaza.

Findings

The findings demonstrate that the context of conflict itself and its impact on gender norms is a prime motivator for women to engage in entrepreneurial ventures. Some gender roles were constraining and other enabling women to initiate and sustain their ventures to contribute to their families’ well-being. In spite of the fact that the conflict context and entrepreneurship have contributed to enhancing the agency of women and their ability to navigate the conflict and its consequences, the gendered practices and assumptions are still used as guidance for legitimising women’s entrepreneurship.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the gender and entrepreneurship literature by giving greater visibility to women entrepreneurs operating in conflict zones, which remain under researched. This paper also demonstrates how prolonged conflict instigates social and economic changes that can empower women entrepreneurs while simultaneously reinforcing gendered norms.

中文翻译：

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通过妇女的创业精神解决加沙的冲突

目的

本文旨在探讨冲突地区的妇女创业精神在多大程度上推动了传统上保守的性别规范的开放。通过专注于加沙的女企业家以及她们如何积极地重新协商其多重性别角色并通过企业家精神来引导社会秩序来实现这一目标。

设计/方法/方法

本文采用解释主义的方法，对在加沙经营的16名巴勒斯坦女企业家进行了深入访谈。

发现

调查结果表明，冲突本身的背景及其对性别规范的影响是妇女从事创业活动的主要动力。一些性别角色受到限制，而其他一些角色则使妇女能够发起和维持自己的事业来为家庭福祉做出贡献。尽管冲突的背景和企业家精神有助于增强妇女的机能，增强她们应对冲突及其后果的能力，但性别化的做法和假设仍然被用作使妇女的企业家合法化的指导。

创意/价值

本文为社会性别和企业家精神文献做出了贡献，使冲突地区的女企业家获得了更大的知名度，这些领域仍在研究中。本文还展示了长期的冲突如何引发社会和经济变革，这些变革可以赋予女企业家权力，同时又加强了性别规范。