ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses that women are drawn to entrepreneurship and women-owned startups less due to monetary motivations and more because of perks, such as flexible hours, child care and gender-segregated workspaces. It explores the motivations and values that shape the local labour force, state’s encouragement of entrepreneurship and the forces (and values) motivating women’s employment choices. The legitimization provided by state and society is manifested through tax incentives, public funds, startup capital and subsidized loans for new businesses as well as skills development and financial training for new businesswomen. As such, entrepreneurship emerges as a viable alternative to, or source of, employment, since women business owners can determine whether or not to maintain a gender-segregated or women-only workspace. As women-owned businesses continue to increase in the Gulf, one may also wonder whether this may be perceived as a feminization of entrepreneurship, and whether in long term this may lead to a (social) devaluation and subsequently a loss of (financial) investment.
