Driven by Necessity, Shaped by Reality: The Lived Experience of Entrepreneur Mothers in Northern Ireland
5 min read · Jan 2025
McGowan, Pauric, Caroline Lewis Redeker, Sarah Y. Cooper, and Kate Greenan (2012)
Entrepreneurship offered a partial answer to both a desire for greater flexibility and control over personal time and the need to take control over personal and professional ambitions.
Summary
While many women entrepreneurs are driven by the same motivations as male entrepreneurs (e.g., independence and financial success), some female founders are driven by the desire to balance career ambitions with domestic responsibilities. This paper examines the experiences of women entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland to deepen our understanding of their entrepreneurial journeys, including their motivations, expectations, and the realities of achieving work-life balance within the entrepreneurial context.
Method
This study employs a qualitative approach to exploring the experiences of female entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland. The authors conducted in-depth and semi-structured interviews with 14 women with varying levels of familial responsibilities and operating in different business sectors to understand their motivations, expectations, and challenges in balancing business and family life.
Key Findings
Women are motivated to start their businesses by a combination of positive “pull” factors and negative “push” factors.
Positive motivations include a desire for challenge, personal fulfillment, control over decision-making, flexibility to balance work and family, and family influence.
Push factors include dissatisfaction with previous employment, lack of promotion opportunities, poor work-life balance, and negative work environments.
Women in the sample did not report financial gain as the primary motivator.
Women entrepreneurs have a mix of positive and negative expectations when starting their businesses.
Positive expectations center around increased flexibility, higher job satisfaction and control over careers.
Negative expectations mainly cover financial instability and the possibility of failure.
The challenges were significant according to female entrepreneurial experience.
While the flexibility to balance work and family commitments is highly valued, especially with children, feelings of guilt, isolation, and stress are common.
Several participants expressed that their situation was not different from working mothers.:“...you feel you are missing out and you don’t feel like a great mother…I suppose that’s probably the worst bit of it, but then I think anybody working, whether it’s in business or in work, it’s the same.”
Additionally, financial uncertainties and a lack of support are key obstacles.
The major weight of parental responsibilities fell to these women with most receiving little or no support.
One participant mentioned that “if you pushed [their partner] to (help out), there would be times when he would definitely help out, but it would be a favour to you.”
Takeaways
This study underscores the complex motivations and experiences of women entrepreneurs. While often driven by a desire for greater flexibility and control over their lives, these women also face significant challenges in balancing work and family responsibilities. Entrepreneurship is not solely motivated by financial gain but by a deeper desire for personal fulfillment and independence. Despite the inherent difficulties, these women demonstrate remarkable resilience and determination in navigating their entrepreneurial journeys.
The research findings also challenge the notion that entrepreneurship is a viable pathway to a better work-life balance for all women. While some may experience increased flexibility, others, particularly mothers, juggle demanding business responsibilities with childcare and household obligations. This highlights the need for targeted support to empower women entrepreneurs, especially those with caregiving responsibilities. Access to affordable childcare, flexible work arrangements, and mentorship programs are essential to creating an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem where women can thrive.
References
McGowan, Pauric, Caroline Lewis Redeker, Sarah Y. Cooper, and Kate Greenan. 2012. “Female entrepreneurship and the management of business and domestic roles: Motivations, expectations and realities.” Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 24 (1-2), 53-72.
About WIN-VC Canada:
New Power Labs is the research lead of the Women and Nonbinary (W) Impact (I) Network (N) for Venture Capital (VC), a national collaborative of organizations working to provide services, programming, events, and dedicated resources to women and non-binary entrepreneurs and gender lens investors across Canada who are working towards becoming investment ready and increasing the pool of investors driven to invest in these ventures.
This research is part of WIN-VC Canada, supported by the Government of Canada. WIN-VC acknowledges the support of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED). ISED has awarded funding for WIN-VC that will make the venture capital environment more inclusive for women by transforming traditional investment processes, processes and knowledge into respectful and meaningful approaches that value equity and impact with a focus on diverse women and non-binary entrepreneurs and SMEs including Black communities, Indigenous peoples, racialized populations, persons with a disability, 2SLGBTQ2+ and new Canadians.
