Negotiating class, femininity and career: Latin American migrant women entrepreneurs in Spain
| Published date | 01 August 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12361 |
| Author | María Villares‐Varela |
| Date | 01 August 2018 |
Negotiating class, femininity and career:
Latin American migrant women entrepreneurs
in Spain
Mar
ıa Villares-Varela*
ABSTRACT
This article analyses how the gendered and classed positions of migrant women explain the
meanings of becoming an entrepreneur and the role of their spouses in their occupational tra-
jectories. Using a translocational positionality approach, the article challenges the claim that
women escape patriarchal domination by establishing their own businesses. The narratives of
35 Latin American women entrepreneurs in Spain reveal that becoming an entrepreneur is con-
ditioned by class-based ideas of masculinity and femininity. I argue that middle-class Latin
American immigrant women become entrepreneurs to promote their spouse’s career advance-
ment while conforming to class-based norms of femininity. In contrast, lower class Latin
American women view the business as a space of autonomy and occupational upward mobility
that nevertheless also complies with working-class definitions of femininity. The policy impli-
cations of these findings relate to making class aspirations central to the support of labour mar-
ket integration and empowerment of migrant women.
INTRODUCTION
This article analyses how the gendered and classed positions of middle-class and working-class
migrant women business owners explain divergent meanings of becoming an entrepreneur and the
absence of their spouses in running their businesses. In doing this, I compare the experiences of
both working and middle-class Latin American migrant entrepreneurs in Spain to determine the
extent to which a similar labour market position (i.e., business owner) conceals different interac-
tions between social class and representations of appropriate masculinity and femininity. Previous
analyses of migrant women in the ethnic economy have emphasised that “gender-blindness”results
in a failure to understand how business and household dynamics are shaped by gender ideologies
(Phizacklea, 1988; Morokvasic, 1991). Feminist scholars have identified the use of female labour
as a key factor in the formation and sustainability of migrant firms, which suggests that women’s
work is largely invisible and that their autonomy is hindered by working in the ethnic economy
(Anthias and Mehta, 2003). In contrast, independent migrant women entrepreneurs are portrayed as
empowered and autonomous, and their businesses serve as a means to facilitate spaces for breaking
away from traditional family relations (Morokvasic, 1991; Bhachu, 1991; Apistzch and Kontos,
2003; Essers, Doorewaard, and Benschop, 2013).
Although feminist and gender analyses have advanced our understanding of the roles of gender
and ethnicity in immigrant entrepreneurship, they have overlooked the role of class positions. The
*University of Southampton
doi: 10.1111/imig.12361
©2017 The Author
International Migration ©2017 IOM
International Migration Vol. 56 (4) 2018
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
present article addresses the issue of the role of class positions and gender ideologies in the occu-
pational strategies of immigrant women entrepreneurs of various class backgrounds who establish
and operate small firms without the involvement of their spouses. The present article challenges the
claim that migrant women escape patriarchal domination by establishing their own businesses and
argues that women who independently run their own businesses do not necessarily enjoy upward
occupational mobility, empowerment or self-realization. To unpack the strategies underlying
entrepreneurship, the present article adopts the framework of translocational positionality (Anthias,
2008; Anthias, 2013). Because translocational positionality interprets narratives, identities, practices
and outcomes by taking into account both the simultaneously experienced complexities of different
social hierarchies and the role of multiple locations in time and space (Anthias, 2013), it provides
an appropriate framework for understanding the translation of migrant class and gender positions
across different spaces (i.e., country of origin and destination) and occupational transitions (i.e.,
from paid employment to becoming an entrepreneur).
I argue that the choices to become entrepreneurs and the lack of involvement of their spouses are
explained by the interaction of class position and gender ideologies. Although both middle-class
and working-class women entrepreneurs do not rely on their husband’s support in their businesses,
the underlying reasons for this are different. The findings of the present research indicate that mid-
dle-class women, who experience strong downward social mobility due to immigrating to Spain,
view the entrepreneurial strategy as a sacrifice that guarantees their spouse’s career advancement.
This strategy preserves the husband’s class-based masculinity while conforming to traditional
understandings of femininities by sacrificing their own careers. On the other hand, Latin American
women entrepreneurs from lower class positions who engaged in domestic/care work prior to estab-
lishing a business, regard business activity as the highest rung of the social mobility ladder in
Spain and report that the business opens spaces of autonomy. However, their entrepreneurship does
not challenge their class-based representation of femininity because they report that becoming an
entrepreneur provides them with greater flexibility to reconcile work and care activities.
The present article is structured as follows: the first section presents a critical review of key dis-
cussions of migrant women in the ethnic economy and argues that their involvement has been
explained as either conforming to or breaking away from patriarchal relations. The next section
then describes how data were collected, the methodology, analytical framework and context. The
following sections present an analysis of the gender and class hierarchies exhibited by Latin Ameri-
can migrant women entrepreneurs, in relation to (i) the meaning of the business for their career tra-
jectories; (ii) the experiences of running their businesses on their own; and (iii) the extent to which
the business is central to their negotiations of class-based femininity and masculinity. The conclud-
ing section discusses the significance of the study findings and explores the policy implications of
the results.
WOMEN IN THE ETHNIC ECONOMY: FROM EXPLOITATION TO EMPOWERMENT
AND THE ABSENCE OF CLASS
Key accounts of immigrant entrepreneurship (Light, 1984; Waldinger, Ward and Aldrich, 1985;
Portes and Zhou, 1992; Kloosterman et al., 1999) fail to sufficiently explore the implications of the
patriarchal system for immigrant small firms (Westwood, 1988; Josephides, 1988; Hillman, 1999;
Ram, Jones and Villares-Varela, 2016). Despite the “gender-blindness”of research on immigrant
businesses, scholars note that family dynamics are embedded in these businesses due to the high
contribution of flexible and loyal family support (Jones, Ram and Villares-Varela, 2017). Because
immigrant entrepreneurship often occurs in market areas where profitability is based on the exten-
sive use of labour force as the basis for competition, recourse to family labour is a general
110 Villares-Varela
©2017 The Author. International Migration ©2017 IOM
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