Capitalism’s Handmaidens

Myth and Womens Enterprise Under Neoliberalism
A powerful mythology has grown up around the idea of womens entrepreneurship. Langworthy offers a political economy of womens enterprise and asks what value womens enterprise gives, not to women, but to the institutions that have shaped them and placed them in the centre of the global imaginary.
When we think of a woman entrepreneur, what comes to mind? Women entrepreneurs hold a dominant presence in political, social, economic and development imaginaries, as a global class of workers typifying the contemporary, neoliberal era. Their enterprise is readily proffered as the evidence of a nations progress, inclusion and development. International institutions, development banks, states, civil society groups, corporations and international financial institutions promote womens enterprise in nearly every corner of the globe. A powerful mythology has grown up around the idea of women as empowered,