Authors: Wojdan Omran and Shumaila Yousafzai
Journal: International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship (SCOPUS Q1, Top 10%)
Summary:
Entrepreneurship is often seen as a path to empowerment, but for many women in the Global
South, it’s also a form of quiet resistance. This study asks: How do women navigate and push
back against the structural forces that limit them, such as patriarchy, institutional barriers, and
colonial legacies?
Through a systematic review of 75 academic studies, this research introduces a powerful yet
often invisible concept: infrapolitics, the subtle, everyday acts of resistance that women use to
survive, adapt, and challenge oppression without open defiance. These include:
The paper draws particular attention to the case of Palestinian women entrepreneurs, who face
the double burden of patriarchy and colonial occupation. In such constrained environments,
women turn their home-based businesses, traditional crafts, and cultural storytelling into
powerful tools for survival and resistance.
Why it matters:
This work challenges the dominant, Western-centric view that sees women in the Global South
as passive or lacking agency. It highlights how these women are innovating within their own
contexts, not just economically, but politically and culturally.
Policy and Practice Implications:
Development programs and entrepreneurship support must move beyond “one-size-fits-all”
models. Recognizing the quiet, culturally grounded forms of resistance already taking place can
lead to more effective, empowering interventions.
Takeaway:
Sometimes, the most powerful resistance isn’t loud. It’s woven quietly into everyday life, into
food cooked at home, patterns stitched into fabric, networks built in back rooms—and into
businesses that reshape the world from the margins.
Read the complete paper
Journal: International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship (SCOPUS Q1, Top 10%)
Summary:
Entrepreneurship is often seen as a path to empowerment, but for many women in the Global
South, it’s also a form of quiet resistance. This study asks: How do women navigate and push
back against the structural forces that limit them, such as patriarchy, institutional barriers, and
colonial legacies?
Through a systematic review of 75 academic studies, this research introduces a powerful yet
often invisible concept: infrapolitics, the subtle, everyday acts of resistance that women use to
survive, adapt, and challenge oppression without open defiance. These include:
- Strategic disobedience – appearing to follow social norms while discreetly subverting
- Quiet activism – negotiating gender expectations to expand personal and professional
- Leveraging social networks – building informal support systems to bypass male-
- Cultural entrepreneurship and bricolage – creatively using available resources and
- Islamic feminism – reinterpreting faith to justify women`s right to work and lead.
The paper draws particular attention to the case of Palestinian women entrepreneurs, who face
the double burden of patriarchy and colonial occupation. In such constrained environments,
women turn their home-based businesses, traditional crafts, and cultural storytelling into
powerful tools for survival and resistance.
Why it matters:
This work challenges the dominant, Western-centric view that sees women in the Global South
as passive or lacking agency. It highlights how these women are innovating within their own
contexts, not just economically, but politically and culturally.
Policy and Practice Implications:
Development programs and entrepreneurship support must move beyond “one-size-fits-all”
models. Recognizing the quiet, culturally grounded forms of resistance already taking place can
lead to more effective, empowering interventions.
Takeaway:
Sometimes, the most powerful resistance isn’t loud. It’s woven quietly into everyday life, into
food cooked at home, patterns stitched into fabric, networks built in back rooms—and into
businesses that reshape the world from the margins.
Read the complete paper