Entrepreneurship in the Shadow of Pandemic and Domestic Violence: The Experiences of American Women Micro-Entrepreneurs

• In Event: Experiences and Consequences of Domestic Violence Victimization

Abstract

This research examines American women micro-entrepreneurs’ experiences of domestic violence while pursuing their entrepreneurship careers during and in the aftermath of the Covid-19 Pandemic. The author draws upon fieldwork being conducted in metropolitan areas in Arizona and Texas from 2021 to 2023 with 23 women who defined themselves as self-employed. The author purposively recruited, interviewed, and observed the women from racial and ethnic minority groups (e.g., Asian, indigenous women, Latina, and African American women). Special attention was devoted to their experiences of the violence, perpetrated by their partners, at the time they were committed to coping with both opportunities and challenges created by Covid. The women described that such struggle had been further intensified especially when Covid caused either challenges, opportunities, or both to their businesses. Instead of feeling empowered, as promised by neoliberal discourses of entrepreneurship, their choice to prioritize work over family provoked violent backlash from their partners, perpetuating historic cycles of the violence. Significantly, the findings shed light on how the respondents’ positionality as self-employed entrepreneurs vis-à-vis intersecting social identities and embeddedness in particular economic and culture contexts shape their strategies to cope with pressures, threats, or even physical violence inflicted by their partners.

Author

• Dongling Zhang, Webster University