Canadian women negotiating working knowledge in enterprise: Interpretive and critical readings of a national study

Citation

Fenwick T (2002) Canadian women negotiating working knowledge in enterprise: Interpretive and critical readings of a national study. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 16 (2), pp. 1-29. http://journals.msvu.ca/index.php/cjsae/article/viewFile/1877/1638

Abstract
Women in Canada are leaving their jobs in unprecedented numbers to become entrepreneurs. This phenomenon offers rich opportunity to study the process of their work learning. This article presents findings of a qualitative Canada-wide study exploring these complex relationships between the process of learning, the nature of personal change, and the work of women entrepreneurs. Over 100 women from British Columbia to Nova Scotia were interviewed: all had left jobs with an organization to start her own business, often with little or no previous business experience or education. The findings of this study are presented in two parts. First, themes of the women's narratives are outlined showing aspects of their working knowledge, the process of its development, and influences on this process such as different women's values, purposes and learning practices. Second, a critical reading of selected findings is presented, using critical cultural and feminist lenses to examine contested terrains of women entrepreneurs' working knowledge and the ethic of its development. The conclusion bridges the more productive and more limiting themes emerging from this study and suggests future directions for theory and research.

Journal
Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education: Volume 16, Issue 2